TY - JOUR A1 - Fritsch, Michael A1 - Kritikos, Alexander A1 - Sorgner, Alina T1 - Why did self-employment increase so strongly in Germany? JF - Entrepreneurship and regional development N2 - Germany experienced a unique rise in the level of self-employment in the first two decades following unification. Applying the nonlinear Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique, we find that the main factors driving these changes in the overall level of self-employment are demographic developments, the shift towards service sector employment and a larger share of population holding a tertiary degree. While these factors explain most of the development in self-employment with employees and the overall level of self-employment in West Germany, their explanatory power is much lower for the stronger increase in solo self-employment and in self-employment in former socialist East Germany. KW - self-employment KW - nonlinear Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique KW - entrepreneurship KW - Germany KW - L26 KW - D22 Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2015.1048310 SN - 0898-5626 SN - 1464-5114 VL - 27 IS - 5-6 SP - 307 EP - 333 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Caliendo, Marco A1 - Fossen, Frank M. A1 - Kritikos, Alexander T1 - What Makes an Employer? T2 - CEPA Discussion Papers N2 - As the policy debate on entrepreneurship increasingly centers on firm growth in terms of job creation, it is important to better understand which variables influence the first hiring decision and which ones influence the subsequent survival as an employer. Using the German Socio-economic Panel (SOEP), we analyze what role individual characteristics of entrepreneurs play in sustainable job creation. While human and social capital variables positively influence the hiring decision and the survival as an employer in the same direction, we show that none of the personality traits affect the two outcomes in the same way. Some traits are only relevant for survival as an employer but do not influence the hiring decision, other traits even unfold a revolving door effect, in the sense that employers tend to fail due to the same characteristics that positively influenced their hiring decision. T3 - CEPA Discussion Papers - 13 KW - employer KW - entrepreneurship KW - business venturing KW - firm growth KW - employment growth KW - personality Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-437360 SN - 2628-653X IS - 13 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Caliendo, Marco A1 - Fossen, Frank A1 - Kritikos, Alexander T1 - Trust, positive reciprocity, and negative reciprocity Do these traits impact entrepreneurial dynamics? JF - Journal of economic psychology : research in economic psychology and behavioral economics N2 - Experimental evidence reveals that there is a strong willingness to trust and to act in both positively and negatively reciprocal ways. So far it is rarely analyzed whether these variables of social cognition influence everyday decision making behavior. We focus on entrepreneurs who are permanently facing exchange processes in the interplay with investors, sellers, and buyers, as well as needing to trust others and reciprocate with their network. We base our analysis on the German Socio-Economic Panel with its recently introduced questions about trust, positive reciprocity, and negative reciprocity to examine the extent that these variables influence the entrepreneurial decision processes. More specifically, we analyze whether (i) the willingness to trust other people influences the probability of starting a business; (ii) trust, positive reciprocity, and negative reciprocity influence the exit probability of entrepreneurs; and (iii) willingness to trust and to act reciprocally influences the probability of being an entrepreneur versus an employee or a manager. Our findings reveal that, in particular, trust impacts entrepreneurial development. Interestingly, entrepreneurs are more trustful than employees, but much less trustful than managers. KW - Entrepreneurship KW - Trust KW - Reciprocity Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2011.01.005 SN - 0167-4870 VL - 33 IS - 2 SP - 394 EP - 409 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Baumann, Julian A1 - Kritikos, Alexander T1 - The link between R&D, innovation and productivity: Are micro firms different? JF - Research Policy N2 - We analyze the link between R&D, innovation, and productivity in MSMEs with a special focus on micro firms with fewer than 10 employees; usually constituting the majority of firms in industrialized economies. Using the German KfW SME-panel, we examine to what extent micro firms are different from other firms in terms of innovativeness. We find that while firms engage in innovative activities with smaller probability, the smaller they are, for those firms that do make such investment, R&D intensity is larger the smaller firms are. For all MSMEs, the predicted R&D intensity is positively correlated with the probability of reporting innovation, with a larger effect size for product than for process innovations. Moreover, micro firms benefit in a comparable way from innovation processes as larger firms, as they are similarly able to increase their labor productivity. Overall, the link between R&D, innovation, and productivity in micro firms does not largely differ from their larger counterparts. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - MSMEs KW - R&D KW - Innovation KW - Productivity Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2016.03.008 SN - 0048-7333 SN - 1873-7625 VL - 45 SP - 1263 EP - 1274 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Caliendo, Marco A1 - Fossen, Frank A1 - Kritikos, Alexander T1 - The impact of risk attitudes on entrepreneurial survival N2 - Risk attitudes influence the complete life cycle of entrepreneurs. Whereas recent research underpins the theoretical proposition of a positive correlation between risk attitudes and the decision to become self-employed, the effects on survival are not as straightforward. Psychological research posits an inverse U-shaped relationship between risk attitudes and entrepreneurial survival. On the basis of experimentally validated data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we examine the extent to which risk attitudes influence survival rates in self-employment in Germany. The empirical results confirm that persons whose risk attitudes are in the medium range survive significantly longer as entrepreneurs than do persons with particularly low or high risk attitudes. Y1 - 2010 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01672681 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2010.02.012 SN - 0167-2681 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Caliendo, Marco A1 - Fossen, Frank M. A1 - Kritikos, Alexander A1 - Wetter, Miriam T1 - The Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship: Not just a Matter of Personality JF - CESifo economic studies : a joint initiative of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and Ifo Institute for Economic Research N2 - Why do entrepreneurship rates differ so markedly by gender? Using data from a large representative German household panel, we investigate to what extent personality traits, human capital, and the employment history influence the start-up decision and can explain the gender gap in entrepreneurship. Applying a decomposition analysis, we observe that the higher risk aversion among women explains a large share of the entrepreneurial gender gap. We also find an education effect contributing to the gender difference. In contrast, the Big Five model and the current employment state have effects in the opposite direction, meaning that the gender gap in entrepreneurial entry would be even larger if women had the same scores and the same employment status as men. (JEL codes: L26, J16, D81, J24, M13). KW - entrepreneurship KW - gender gap KW - personality KW - decomposition analysis Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/cesifo/ifu023 SN - 1610-241X SN - 1612-7501 VL - 61 IS - 1 SP - 202 EP - 238 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - INPR A1 - Caliendo, Marco A1 - Kritikos, Alexander T1 - Searching for the entrepreneurial personality New evidence and avenues for further research T2 - Journal of economic psychology : research in economic psychology and behavioral economics Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2011.06.001 SN - 0167-4870 VL - 33 IS - 2 SP - 319 EP - 324 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Konon, Alexander A1 - Kritikos, Alexander T1 - Prediction based on entrepreneurship-prone personality profiles: BT - sometimes worse than the toss of a coin JF - Small business economics : an international journal N2 - The human personality predicts a wide range of activities and occupational choices-from musical sophistication to entrepreneurial careers. However, which method should be applied if information on personality traits is used for prediction and advice? In psychological research, group profiles are widely employed. In this contribution, we examine the performance of profiles using the example of career prediction and advice, involving a comparison of average trait scores of successful entrepreneurs with the traits of potential entrepreneurs. Based on a simple theoretical model estimated with GSOEP data and analyzed with Monte Carlo methods, we show, for the first time, that the choice of the comparison method matters substantially. We reveal that under certain conditions the performance of average profiles is inferior to the tossing of a coin. Alternative methods, such as directly estimating success probabilities, deliver better performance and are more robust. KW - Advice KW - Personality KW - Entrepreneurship KW - Profiles Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-0111-8 SN - 0921-898X SN - 1573-0913 VL - 53 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 20 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Caliendo, Marco A1 - Fossen, Frank A1 - Kritikos, Alexander T1 - Personality characteristics and the decisions to become and stay self-employed JF - Small business economics : an international journal N2 - Based on a large, representative German household panel, we investigate to what extent the personality of individuals influences the entry decision into and the exit decision from self-employment. We reveal that some traits, such as openness to experience, extraversion, and risk tolerance affect entry, but different ones, such as agreeableness or different parameter values of risk tolerance, affect exit from self-employment. Only locus of control has a similar influence on the entry and exit decisions. The explanatory power of all observed traits among all observable variables amounts to 30 %, with risk tolerance, locus of control, and openness having the highest explanatory power. KW - Entrepreneurship KW - Personality KW - Big five KW - Risk tolerance KW - Locus of control Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-013-9514-8 SN - 0921-898X SN - 1573-0913 VL - 42 IS - 4 SP - 787 EP - 814 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kritikos, Alexander A1 - Tan, Jonathan H. W. T1 - Influence in the face of impunity JF - Economics letters N2 - We compare dictator and impunity games. In impunity games, responders can reject offers but to no payoff consequence to proposers. Because proposers act under impunity, we should expect the same behavior across games, but experimentally observed behavior varies. Responders indeed exercise the rejection option. This threat psychologically influences proposers. Some proposers avoid rejection by offering nothing. Others raise offers, but only when they receive feedback from responders. Responders lose this influence in the absence of feedback. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Dictator KW - Impunity KW - Experiment KW - Psychological influence KW - Guilt Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2016.02.020 SN - 0165-1765 SN - 1873-7374 VL - 141 SP - 119 EP - 121 PB - Elsevier CY - Lausanne ER -