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Rethinking Entrepreneurial Human Capital pp 63–87Cite as

Entrepreneurs’ Export Orientation and Growth Aspirations: The Moderating Role of Individual Human Capital

Part of the Studies on Entrepreneurship, Structural Change and Industrial Dynamics book series (ESID)

Abstract

We investigate the effect of entrepreneurs’ export orientation on growth aspirations, contingent on their level of human capital. We argue that the higher the entrepreneurs’ export orientation, the higher their growth aspirations. Importantly, we also suggest that these aspirations will vary depending on two endowments of individual human capital. To test our hypotheses, we employ a multilevel model analysis, using a combined dataset drawn from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and the World Bank in 78 countries. The results show that entrepreneurs’ export orientation does not significantly affect growth aspirations. However, we find that its effect on aspirations is significantly higher for those entrepreneurs holding greater levels of both higher education and entrepreneurial experience. Implications from these findings are discussed.

Keywords

  • Entrepreneurs’ export orientation
  • Human capital
  • Growth aspirations
  • Multilevel
  • GEM

Note: Authors are listed alphabetically and contributed equally to this study.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    An alternative methodological approach to control for the effect of heterogeneity across groups is to estimate linear regression models taking into consideration the clustering of standard errors at the province level. It is worth noting that results using this alternative approach are fully consistent with the ones reported here.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Giulio Bosio and Tommaso Minola for their helpful comments and suggestions. We are grateful for useful feedback from GEDC Conference participants at Kingston Business School. We also thank the GEM project for its support to this research. The authors also acknowledge financial support from the project ECO2013-46954-C3-2-R (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Spain

    Joan-Lluís Capelleras, Josep Rialp & Waleed Shleha

  2. King’s Business School, King’s College London, London, UK

    Victor Martin-Sanchez

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  1. Joan-Lluís Capelleras
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Victor Martin-Sanchez .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Economics and Quantitative Methods, University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy

    Dr. Giulio Bosio

  2. Department of Management, Information and Production Engineering, Center for Young and Family Enterprise (CYFE), University of Bergamo, Dalmine, Italy

    Dr. Tommaso Minola

  3. Department of Management, Economics and Quantitative Methods, Center for Young and Family Enterprise (CYFE), University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy

    Dr. Federica Origo

  4. Department of Human and Social Sciences, Center for Young and Family Enterprise (CYFE), University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy

    Dr. Stefano Tomelleri

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Capelleras, JL., Martin-Sanchez, V., Rialp, J., Shleha, W. (2018). Entrepreneurs’ Export Orientation and Growth Aspirations: The Moderating Role of Individual Human Capital. In: Bosio, G., Minola, T., Origo, F., Tomelleri, S. (eds) Rethinking Entrepreneurial Human Capital. Studies on Entrepreneurship, Structural Change and Industrial Dynamics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90548-8_4

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