From Laboratory to Market: On the Propensity of Young Inventors to Form a New Business

Many researchers have studied correlates of business formations. Through the case-based and statistical literature several broad categories of influence on the entrepreneurial decision to start a new business have been identified. We contribute to this literature though our statistical analysis of a unique database of young inventive scientists and engineers and their propensity toward a new business formation. Our particular focus is on young inventors starting a business based on their creative achievements. Among this group do not find empirical support for the influence of traditional variables—such as age, education, and gender—on the propensity to start a new business. Rather, we find that their entrepreneurial experience as a new business proprietor is driven by dimensions of their university laboratory research experience.