Research Experience as Human Capital in New Business Outcomes
Human capital is typically cited as an important contributor to the survival, growth and innovative activity of new businesses. This paper contributes to the literature by both developing novel measures of human capital and examining the link between those measures and the outcomes of young firms. It builds on several strands of the literature which emphasize the importance of employee workplace experience as a dimension of human capital. It shows that the effects of work experience differ substantially by where an employee worked and is valued differently by firms in different sectors. This is particularly true for research experience, which is consistent with the notion that on the job training in complex tasks should be valuable to firms with complex production technologies.
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