Embedded Files
On the origins of entrepreneurship: Evidence from sibling correlations [open access][pre-print]
with Matthew J. Lindquist, Joeri Sol, and Mirjam van Praag
Journal of Business Venturing, 2021, 36(5): 106017
covered by VoxEU and the Scholars Strategy Network
Despite the consensus that entrepreneurship runs in the family, we lack evidence regarding the total importance of family and community background, as well as the relative importance of different background influences that affect entrepreneurship. We draw on human capital formation theories to argue that families and communities provide a salient context for the development of individual entrepreneurial skills and preferences, beyond the existing focus on parental entrepreneurship. We posit that early influences are more important than later influences and propose a hierarchy of family influences, whereby genes have the largest explanatory power, followed by parental entrepreneurship, neighborhoods, and parental resources, and finally by parental immigration, family structure, and sibling peers. Finally, we argue that the higher human and financial capital intensity of incorporated relative to unincorporated entrepreneurship predictably alters the hierarchy of family influences, as does gender. Sibling correlations estimated on Swedish register data confirm our hypotheses.
Family structure and entrepreneurship: Evidence from Swedish siblings [pre-print]
Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 2023, 35(9-10): 979–1005
covered by the ERD podcast, available on Spotify
Family background matters for entrepreneurship, but why do siblings differ in their propensity to become entrepreneurs and the type of ventures they pursue? I draw on family socialization and resource allocation theories to develop hypotheses about the differential effects of family structure – comprising birth order, family size, and sibling gender – on (growth-oriented) entrepreneurship. Using firm incorporation as a marker of growth orientation, I test these hypotheses in a sample of Swedish siblings. Relative to older siblings, later born children are more likely to become unincorporated entrepreneurs, partly because they occupy family niches corresponding to lower educational attainment and higher labour market frictions. Moreover, children in very large families are less likely to pursue incorporation, with stronger effects for men and earlier born children, in line with their limited ability to develop self-efficacy due to resource dilution. Growing up with an opposite-gender sibling does not influence entrepreneurship, indicating that sibling sex composition may not foster stronger gender norms or sex-typing in this domain in Sweden. This study integrates existing findings and offers novel insights, broadening our understanding of family background in entrepreneurship.
Continuing patent applications at the USPTO [open access][pre-print]
With Cesare Righi and Davide Cannito
Research Policy, 2023, 52(4): 104742
Despite their growing importance for firm innovation strategy and frequent appearance in U.S. patent policy debates, how continuing patent applications are used remains unclear. Turn-of-the-century reforms strongly limited opportunities to extend patent term and surprise competitors, but continuing applications have steadily risen since. We argue that they retain a subtle use, as applicants can file continuations to keep prosecution open and change patent scope after locking in gains with the initial patent. We document a sharp drop in parent abandonment and rise in continuations per original patent after the reforms. Continuing applications are more privately valuable than original patents, are filed in more uncertain contexts, for higher value technologies, by more strategic applicants, and react strongly to the notice of allowance. The evidence supports a current strategic use of continuing applications to craft claims over time.
Revenue drift, incentives, and effort allocation in social enterprises [open access][pre-print]
With Simon C. Parker, Randolph Sloof, and Mirjam van Praag
Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 2024, 33(3): 630–651
Covered by Prolific Case Studies
Revenue drift, whereby insufficient attention is given to economic, relative to social, goals, threatens social enterprise performance and survival. We argue that financial incentives can address this problem by redirecting employee attention to commercial tasks and attracting workers less inclined to fixate on social tasks. In an online experiment with varying incentive levels, monetary rewards succeed in directing worker effort to commercial tasks; high-powered incentives attract less prosocial employees, but low-powered incentives do not alter workforce composition. Social enterprises combining monetary rewards with a social mission not only attract more workers but are also able to guard against revenue drift.
Are entrepreneurs more upwardly mobile? [open access][pre-print]
With Matthew J. Lindquist
Journal of Business Venturing, 2025, 40(4): 106498
Entrepreneurship is often hailed as a path to upward intergenerational mobility, but few studies have explicitly tested this belief. Drawing on insights from the literature on entrepreneurial heterogeneity and returns, we compare the extent and direction of mobility across generations among Swedish entrepreneurs and employees. We study intergenerational income rank mobility using high-quality lifetime income measures for 215,000 father-son pairs. Entrepreneurs are drawn disproportionately from both poorer and richer families, but the patterns we uncover hold across the entire paternal income distribution. Sons who own incorporated businesses are more upwardly mobile across generations than employees; sons who own unincorporated businesses are more downwardly mobile. Selection on (un)observable traits fully explains incorporated sons’ moves up, but only a small share of unincorporated sons’ moves down. Income underreporting and, crucially, lower returns to human capital explain the remaining downward mobility. Unincorporated ventures appear to use entrepreneurs’ human capital inefficiently.
Hiring entrepreneurs for innovation [open access][pre-print]
With Louise Lindbjerg
Strategic Management Journal, 2025, 46(13): 3182–3217
Covered by BSE Focus
What human capital do established organizations need to bring new ideas to market? Combining Danish registry and Community Innovation Survey data, we document a robust positive relationship between hiring former founders and firms' sales from innovation. Entrepreneurs join smaller, younger firms (which exhibit larger effects), managerial skills and external industry founding experience matter, while other selection or human capital-based explanations appear muted. Founder hires especially enhance innovation when given middle management decision rights, for incremental offerings, and in innovation-active firms. Our collective findings indicate startup experience equips founders with a generalist ability to acquire and mobilize resources around new ideas. By clarifying the nature of entrepreneurial human capital, we highlight a novel innovation input that helps firms unlock its commercial value.
OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS
Reproducibility in Management Science [open access][pre-print]
With Miloš Fišar et al. and the Management Science Reproducibility Collaboration
Management Science, 2024, 70(3): 1343–1356
European riches: European data
With Vera Rocha, editors Olav Sorenson and Patricia H. Thornton
De Gruyter Handbook of Sociology of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2025
(When) should a company have purpose? [open access][pre-print]
4rt Congrés d’Economia i Empresa de Catalunya, 2025
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