Education, Training and Networking for Entrepreneurship in ...

The distinct effects upon exporting are estimatlong
higher education are more export-oriented
than entrepreneurs with vocational education
and short further education (the difference between
the educational groups is statistically
significant; with probability-value 0.002 in the
chi-square test of the cross-tabulation, and p-
value 0.01 in the F-test comparing the five
means).
Export-orientation and training
Entrepreneurs’ export-orientation is related to
their training in starting a business, Table 11.3.
Trained entrepreneurs export more frequently
than untrained entrepreneurs, as might be expected
(the difference is statistically significant,
with p-value 0.02 in the one-sided t-test comparing
the two means).
Table 11.4. Competent entrepreneurs appear
slightly more export-oriented than entrepreneurs
without this competency, but the small
difference is only marginally significant (the
probability-value is 0,07 in the one-sided t-test
comparing the two averages).
Export-orientation and networking
Entrepreneurs’ export-orientation is related to
their networking, Table 11.5. Entrepreneurs with
extensive advisory networks tend to export
more than entrepreneurs with few advisors, as
might be expected. The correlation of exports
with number of advisors is positive, 0.2 and is
statistically significant (with probability-value
0.005 in a one-sided test).
Table 11.3
Exporting by entrepreneurs, by their
training
Denmark 2008
Trained Untrained
Exporting 46 % 33 %
Not exporting 54 % 67 %
Sum 100 % 100 %
Mean log export 1.4 0.8
N entrepreneurs 41 115
Table 11.5
Exporting by entrepreneurs, by their
networking with advisors
Denmark 2008
Small Large
network network
Exporting 27 % 46 %
Not exporting 73 % 54 %
Sum 100 % 100 %
Mean log export 0.6 1.3
N entrepreneurs 77 78
Export-orientation and competency
Entrepreneurs’ export-orientation appears related
to their competency to start a business,
Table 11.4
Exporting by entrepreneurs, by their
competency
Denmark 2003-08
Competent Less
competent
Exporting 47 % 42 %
Not exporting 53 % 58 %
Sum 100 % 100 %
Mean log export 1.3 1.2
N entrepeneurs 1.609 335
The above cross-tabulations are limited because
a cross-tabulation examines the relationship
between exports and only one condition,
while ignoring other conditions that may impact
the relationship. Therefore, a more elaborate
analysis will be undertaken next.
Effects upon exports from education,
training, competency and networking
The question now is, what are the distinct individual
effects upon exporting from education,
training, competency and networking, while
holding other conditions constant, and how are
these conditions jointly, in sequence, affecting
exports?
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