A Timely Take-off. Human Capital, Age, and Entrepreneurial Process Duration

We examine the impact of nascent entrepreneurs’ human capital, both general and specific, and of their age, on the duration of the business start-up process until a positive (profitable) outcome. We argue why higher knowledge and older age of entrepreneurs may be associated either with shorter or with longer duration of the entrepreneurial process to a profitable outcome. Using the harmonised PSED dataset, and applying competing risks Cox models, we find that higher educational attainment trumps other forms of human capital being associated with the fastest venture creation process towards a profitable outcome, especially for hi-tech start up projects. Age has a sinusoidal relationship with the speed of the start-up process.