Serial Entrepreneurship: Differentiating Direct from Latent Re-entrants

This study is the first to examine the decision to re-enter business ownership by entrepreneurs who have exited their first business using a longitudinal matched employer-employee database. This kind of data allow us to distinguish between those serial entrepreneurs who re-enter business ownership immediately upon exiting their first business (direct serial), and those who do so after an interlude in paid employment, or non-employment (latent serial). Results highlight the importance of human capital in triggering serial entrepreneurship, but the kinds of experiences driving direct and latent serial entrepreneurs are different.