The human capital approach and its applicability to entrepreneurship research : an empirical examination

The concept of human capital is implicit' in many empirical studies of both survival and success chances of new businesses. These studies investigate the effects of the founder's education, career history, family, occupational background, and so on. However, few studies make explicit their connection to the framework of human capital theory in entrepreneurship research. The current study attempts to fill this gap in the literature by examining from this perspective, how factors such as achievement orientation, locus of control, entrepreneurial family background, managerial skills, previous experience in the industry, formal education of the entrepreneur or previous entrepreneurial experience, influence the performance of new ventures