Entrepreneurship in Context
Date of Award
Spring 2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Management
First Advisor
Kovács, Balázs
Abstract
Entrepreneurship is ubiquitous in policy discussions and academic research. Yet a select few types of entrepreneurs receive most of the attention. In this dissertation, I go beyond studying US high growth entrepreneurs to understand how prior findings have relied on contextually-dependent assumptions. I study entrepreneurs and their careers in India, an emerging market, and focus on the historical underpinnings of entrepreneurial cultures in Germany. The first two essays use novel survey data from India to study the returns to entrepreneurship. In contrast to negative returns in most of the Western world, the first essay documents an earnings premium that can be attributed to self-employment providing access to more stable income streams compared to paid employment. The second essay builds on the first by examining the long-term consequences of entrepreneurship in India. I draw on a context with limited prior data availability to build a theory that distinguishes between types of entrepreneurs and their human capital, reconciling contrasting findings from prior work. I document that low human capital workers, entering from precarious employment, achieve higher and more stable earnings in entrepreneurship. They can also return to paid employment without much friction, facilitated by hiring arrangements placing low burdens of commitment on employers. High human capital entrepreneurs, on the other hand, face an institutional environment that makes building a growth startup costly and they struggle to return to salaried employment. The last chapter studies the effect of religion, specifically Protestantism, on regional rates of entrepreneurship. In contrast to prior work, it takes a historical- and cultural lens to religion as a force that has permeated society over time, rather than depending on the beliefs of the individual. I document a negative relationship between Protestant roots and rates of new business creation in Germany.
Recommended Citation
Borchhardt, Geoffrey, "Entrepreneurship in Context" (2024). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 1317.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/1317
