 Start-ups launched by recent STEM university graduates: The impact of university education on entrepreneurial entryMassimo G. Colombo and Evila Piva Research Policy, 2020, vol. 49, issue 6 Abstract: University education is a crucial source of human capital and influences graduates’ choice of entrepreneurship as a career. Here, we discuss the contrasting effects on recent graduates’ entrepreneurial entry of the type and quality of the human capital developed through university education in STEM fields. We determine which effects prevail by examining the graduates who obtained a Master of Science degree in the period 2005–2009 from Politecnico di Milano. A university curriculum specialized into a limited number of scientific and technical fields, training in economics and management, and the scientific quality of the university in the research fields pertinent to the graduate's degree programme are positively associated with entrepreneurial entry immediately after graduation, while the graduation grade is not. The graduation grade and the scientific quality of the university positively moderate the impact of curriculum specialization. These effects weaken over time, but are still relevant five years after graduation. Keywords: Graduates’ entrepreneurship; STEM; University curriculum; Entrepreneurial entry (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:49:y:2020:i:6:s0048733320300731 DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2020.103993 Access Statistics for this article Research Policy is currently edited by M. Bell, B. Martin, W.E. Steinmueller, A. Arora, M. Callon, M. Kenney, S. Kuhlmann, Keun Lee and F. Murray More articles in Research Policy from Elsevier |
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