The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-2017 The Relationship Between the Human and Social Capital Characteristics of Nascent Entrepreneurs and Expected Job Growth in the United States William Dwight Burge University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, and the Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons Recommended Citation Burge, William Dwight, "The Relationship Between the Human and Social Capital Characteristics of Nascent Entrepreneurs and Expected Job Growth in the United States" (2017). Dissertations. 1387. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/1387 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. 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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HUMAN AND SOCIAL CAPITAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NASCENT ENTREPRENEURS AND EXPECTED JOB GROWTH IN THE UNITED STATES by William Dwight Burge A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School and the Department of Human Capital Development at The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: ________________________________________________ Dr. Cyndi Gaudet, Committee Chair Professor, Human Capital Development ________________________________________________ Dr. Heather Annulis, Committee Member Professor, Human Capital Development ________________________________________________ Dr. Quincy Brown, Committee Member Assistant Professor, Human Capital Development ________________________________________________ Dr. Dale Lunsford, Committee Member Assistant Professor, Human Capital Development _______________________________________________ Dr. Cyndi Gaudet Department Chair, Human Capital Development ________________________________________________ Dr. Karen S. Coats Dean of the Graduate School May 2017 COPYRIGHT BY William Dwight Burge 2017 Published by the Graduate School ABSTRACT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HUMAN AND SOCIAL CAPITAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NASCENT ENTREPRENEURS AND EXPECTED JOB GROWTH IN THE UNITED STATES by William Dwight Burge May 2017 The global financial crisis (GFC) that began in 2007 negatively impacted new business creation (Davidsson & Gordon, 2015). Entrepreneurship has been identified as a viable way to generate jobs in the United States since the 1970s (U.S. Small Business Administration, 2014). However, the literature suggests that there has been a decline in entrepreneurship in the United States (Clifton, 2015; Singh & Ogbolu, 2015). Capital is important to those individuals involved in entrepreneurship (Cetindamar, Gupta, Karadeniz, & Egrican, 2012), specifically, human capital and the social network connections or social capital resources of the entrepreneur (Becker, 1993; Schutjens & Völker, 2010). This study determined the relationship between demographic, human capital, and social capital characteristics of nascent entrepreneurs and expected job growth in the United States. Human capital and social capital theories formed the foundation for the researcher's conceptual framework for this study. The study proposed a model with five variables based on the literature to determine the relationship between demographic, human capital, and social capital characteristics of nascent entrepreneurs and expected job growth in the United States: age, gender, education level, knowing other iii entrepreneurs, and previous business angel investing experience. If the relationships between the human and social capital characteristics and demonstrated job growth relative to becoming a successful entrepreneur are not properly identified, then policymakers and educators could struggle to design and build the training and education infrastructure to support entrepreneur development, generate jobs, and grow the economy. Descriptive statistics, chi-square, and logistic regression analyses were used to analyze a census (N = 387) of nascent entrepreneur respondents participating in the 2011 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey in the United States. The descriptive statistics found that the census of nascent entrepreneurs was predominantly male, ages 35-44 years, college-educated with a bachelor’s degree or higher, and almost half that knew another entrepreneur. The logistic regression analysis of the GEM nascent entrepreneur data found that the age groups 35-44 and 65 and older significantly influenced expected job growth. Possible implications of this research include the development of more effective entrepreneurial training programs in the United States. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the dissertation chair, Dr. Cyndi Gaudet, and the other committee members, Dr. Heather Annulis, Dr. Quincy Brown, and Dr. Dale Lunsford, for their guidance throughout the dissertation process. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. v LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. xi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................................................... xiii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................... xiv CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 Background of the Study ................................................................................................ 3 Entrepreneurship Definition........................................................................................ 3 Expected Job Growth .................................................................................................. 3 Human Capital Theory ................................................................................................ 4 Social Capital Theory ................................................................................................. 5 Statement of the Problem ................................................................................................ 7 Purpose Statement ........................................................................................................... 9 Research Objectives ...................................................................................................... 10 Theory and Conceptual Framework .............................................................................. 11 Significance of the Study .............................................................................................. 13 Delimitations and Assumptions .................................................................................... 13 Definition of Key Terms ............................................................................................... 15 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 16 vi CHAPTER II – REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE .............................................. 18 Human Capital Theory .................................................................................................. 20 Financial and Physical Capital .................................................................................. 20 Human Capital .......................................................................................................... 20 General Human Capital............................................................................................. 21 Specific Human Capital ............................................................................................ 22 Investments in Human Capital .................................................................................. 23 Opportunity Recognition .......................................................................................... 24 Human Capital Constructs ............................................................................................ 26 Age ............................................................................................................................ 26 Gender ....................................................................................................................... 27 Education .................................................................................................................. 28 Social Capital Theory ................................................................................................... 32 Social Capital Definition........................................................................................... 33 Trust .......................................................................................................................... 34 Social Capital Constructs .............................................................................................. 35 Family ....................................................................................................................... 36 Knowing Other Entrepreneurs .................................................................................