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February 17, 2015 Why Some Choose the Road to Entrepreneurship Young people with a good balance of skills and social contacts – including school, business, family, and friend connections – are much more likely to aspire to become entrepreneurs than those with specialized skills and narrow sets of contacts (3.7 versus 1.9 on a 1-to-4 entrepreneurial-disposition scale), say Uschi Backes-Gellner of the University of Zurich in Switzerland and Petra Moog of the University of Siegen in Germany. Drawing on data from more than 2,000 German young people, the researchers say that well-balanced individuals prefer entrepreneurship because they sense they would be more successful at it. Those with narrower sets of skills and contacts tend to prefer – and are better suited to – becoming employees. SOURCE: The disposition to become an entrepreneur and the jacks-of-all-trades in social and human capital

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