 German entrepreneurs in the high-tech field: identifying different profilesDorian Proksch, Wiebke Stranz and Andreas Pinkwart International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2018, vol. 33, issue 1, 52-71 Abstract: While the media portrayal of the US entrepreneur is dominated by the young tech-savvy college dropout, the German entrepreneur is often characterised as an experienced engineer with a PhD. But is this really the case? Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data of 90 venture capital-backed new technology-based firms, this paper explores two research questions: How do the backgrounds and competencies of German high-tech founders differ and do these differences affect the success of the venture? Cluster analysis revealed three representative types of German entrepreneurs: the scientist, the practice-oriented technician, and the business professional. Surprisingly, the scientist ranks lowest in social, business and managerial competencies as well as having the lowest success. However, this founder type raises the highest investments. In contrast, the practice-oriented technician is the most successful. The results of this study offer support to investors in improving their investment strategy. Keywords: German entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial types; human capital; competencies; new technology-based firm; NTBF; venture capital. (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:ids:ijesbu:v:33:y:2018:i:1:p:52-71 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.