Closure and Exposure: Mechanisms in the Intergenerational Transmission of Self-employment

Abstract

Insights into the origins of entrepreneurial activity are gained through a study of alternative mechanisms implicated in the tendency for children of the self-employed to be substantially more likely than other children to enter into self-employment themselves. I use unique life history data to examine the impact of parental self-employment on the transition to self-employment in Denmark and assess the different mechanisms identified in the literature. The results suggest that parental role modeling is an important source of the transmission of self-employment. However, there is little evidence to suggest that children of the self-employed enter self-employment because they have privileged access to their parent's financial or social capital, or because their parents’ self-employment allows them to develop superior entrepreneurial abilities.

Citation

Sørensen, J.B. (2007), "Closure and Exposure: Mechanisms in the Intergenerational Transmission of Self-employment", Ruef, M. and Lounsbury, M. (Ed.) The Sociology of Entrepreneurship (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 25), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 83-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0733-558X(06)25003-1