Education, Training and Networking for Entrepreneurship in ...

Growth-expectations and competency
Entrepreneurs’ growth-expectations are related
to their competency to start a business, Table
12.4. Competent starters expect more expansion
than starters without this competency (the p-
values are less than 0.003 in both the one-sided
chi-square test and the one-sided t-test). Competent
owner-managers expect greater expansion
than less competent owner-managers (the
p-values are less than 0.0001 in both the onesided
chi-square test and the one-sided t-test).
Growth-expectations and networking
Are entrepreneurs growth-expectations related
to their networking with advisors? For starters,
there is no evidence of an association. For owner-managers,
the growth-expectation is higher
for those with a large network than for those
with a small network (the p-value is 0.02 for the
one-sided t-test comparing the two means).
The above cross-tabulations of expectation related
to each condition are limited because they
ignore other conditions that may impact the relation.
Therefore, more elaborate analysis will
be undertaken next.
Effects upon growth-expectations from
education, training, competency and
networking
The question now is: how is the expectation
shaped by distinct effects from each condition,
while holding the other conditions constant?
The effects upon growth-expectations from
education, training, competency and networking
are estimated by regression (Table 12.6 in
the Appendix). The effects for starters are rather
uncertain, partly because the sample is rather
small. The effects for owner-managers are
more certain. Owner-managers’ growth-expectations
are promoted considerably by their
competency, by their networking and apparently
also by their training. Owner-managers
with vocational education, or short or medium
higher education, or without vocational or high-
Table 12.4
Growth-expectations of starters and owner-managers, by their competency
Denmark 2003-08
Starters
Owner-managers
Competent Less competent Competent Less competent
Expansion expected 77 % 58 % 38 % 20 %
No expansion expected 23 % 42 % 62 % 80 %
Sum 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %
Mean expectation 1.6 1.1 0.24 0.07
N entrepeneurs 316 50 1.245 272
Table 12.5
Growth-expectations of starters and owner-managers, by their networking with advisors
Denmark 2008
Starters
Owner-managers
Small network Large network Small network Large network
Expansion expected 86 % 95 % 30 % 35 %
No expansion expected 14 % 5 % 70 % 65 %
Sum 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %
Mean expectation 1.8 1.7 0.1 0.3
N entrepreneurs 14 20 61 49
77