Human capital as predictor for entrepreneurial product innovation for countries in different development stages

This thesis investigates the relationship of high education, start-up skills and prior business experience with becoming an entrepreneurial product innovator. This relationship is tested for countries with factor-driven economies, efficiency-driven economies and innovation-driven economies. The relationship is measured with the logit model, with product innovation as dependent variable. Findings from a sample of 14,057 observations of (TEA) entrepreneurs in the year 2009 and 11,564 observations of (TEA) entrepreneurs in the year 2008 from the GEM APS data show that formal high education is positively related to product innovation for countries in all development stages. Previous business ownership has also a positive effect for countries with factor-driven and innovation-driven economies, while start-up skills are insignificant in the overall models. The results show that the individuals and society gain with product innovations if entrepreneurs have higher formal education