Incorporated entrepreneurship in Norway : Propensity and endurance

Abstract

This study concerns the relationship between individual characteristics, the propensity to become owners of incorporated firms, and endurance as business owners. We start with a large sample of non-entrepreneurs in 2004 and identify those individuals in this cohort who became and remained majority owners of incorporated businesses between 2005 and 2016. The results indicate that individual characteristics can explain a significant proportion of the variance in the propensity to become owners of incorporated firms as well as business owner endurance. One important finding is that prior income is strongly positively related to becoming and remaining owners of incorporated firms.