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 - RPRT A1 - Audretsch, David B. A1 - Hafenstein, Marian A1 - Kritikos, Alexander A1 - Schiersch, Alexander T1 - Firm Size and Innovation in the Service Sector T2 - CEPA Discussion Papers N2 - A rich literature links knowledge inputs with innovative outputs. However, most of what is known is restricted to manufacturing. This paper analyzes whether the three aspects involving innovative activity - R&D; innovative output; and productivity - hold for knowledge intensive services. Combining the models of Crepon et al. (1998) and of Ackerberg et al. (2015), allows for causal interpretation of the relationship between innovation output and labor productivity. We find that knowledge intensive services benefit from innovation activities in the sense that these activities causally increase their labor productivity. Moreover, the firm size advantage found for manufacturing in previous studies nearly disappears for knowledge intensive services. T3 - CEPA Discussion Papers - 4 KW - MSMEs KW - R&D KW - Service Sector KW - Innovation KW - Productivity KW - Entrepreneurship Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-427670 SN - 2628-653X IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Konon, Alexander A1 - Fritsch, Michael A1 - Kritikos, Alexander T1 - Business cycles and start-ups across industries BT - An empirical analysis of German regions JF - Journal of Business Venturing Insights N2 - We analyze whether start-up rates in different industries systematically change with business cycle variables. Using a unique data set at the industry level, we mostly find correlations that are consistent with counter-cyclical influences of the business cycle on entries in both innovative and non-innovative industries. Entries into the large-scale industries, including the innovative part of manufacturing, are only influenced by changes in the cyclical component of unemployment, while entries into small-scale industries, like knowledge intensive services, are mostly influenced by changes in the cyclical component of GDP. Thus, our analysis suggests that favorable conditions in terms of high GDP might not be germane for start-ups. Given that both innovative and non-innovative businesses react counter-cyclically in ‘regular’ recessions, business formation may have a stabilizing effect on the economy. KW - New business formation KW - Entrepreneurship KW - Business cycle KW - Manufacturing KW - Services KW - Innovative industries Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2018.04.006 SN - 0883-9026 SN - 1873-2003 VL - 33 IS - 6 SP - 742 EP - 761 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - JOUR A1 - Fritsch, Michael A1 - Kritikos, Alexander A1 - Pijnenburg, Katharina T1 - Business cycles, unemployment and entrepreneurial entry-evidence from Germany JF - International entrepreneurship and management journal N2 - We investigate whether people are more willing to become self-employed during boom periods or during recessions and to what extent business cycles and unemployment levels influence entries into entrepreneurship. Our analysis for Germany reveals that there is a positive relationship between unemployment rates and start-up activities. Moreover, new business formation is higher during recessions than in boom periods, implying that it is counter-cyclical. When disentangling periods of low and high unemployment we find that the effect of unemployment on new business formation is only statistically significant if the level of unemployment is below the trend, indicating a "low unemployment retain effect". KW - Self-employment KW - Business cycle KW - Unemployment KW - Start-up Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-014-0326-3 SN - 1554-7191 SN - 1555-1938 VL - 11 IS - 2 SP - 267 EP - 286 PB - Springer CY - New York 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 -