A1FT50
Parker, S. C., & van Praag, C. M. (2012)
Journal of Business Venturing, 27(1), 31-46
Extends the occupational choice model of entrepreneurship to the mode of entry (take over an established business or start from scratch). Argues that schooling favours new venture creation, while managerial experience, start-up capital requirements and industry risk favour takeover; a sample of Dutch entrepreneurs gives broad support, and children of family-firm owners invest least in schooling. Country: Netherlands. N is not stated in the abstract. (Abstract source: EconPapers/RePEc record; OpenAlex lists first-online year 2010.)
Sourcedoi:10.1016/j.jbusvent.2010.08.002156 citations (OpenAlex)
A2FT50
Block, J., Thurik, R., van der Zwan, P., & Walter, S. (2013)
Individual and environmental determinants from a cross-country study. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 37(5), 1099-1121
Asks what drives the preferred mode of entry. Multilevel regressions on a large international survey covering 33 countries: at the individual level human capital, risk attitude and inventiveness matter; at the country level, risk tolerance in the culture, innovation output and the administrative difficulty of starting a business explain between-country variation in takeover preference. Outcome is a stated preference, not an observed entry.
Sourcedoi:10.1111/j.1540-6520.2012.00521.x79 citations (OpenAlex)
A3near-FT50
Bastié, F., Cieply, S., & Cussy, P. (2013)
Small Business Economics, 40(4), 865-877
Uses a French database of firms set up in 1998 to model takeover versus start-up. Entrepreneurs with social capital are more likely to start from scratch; bank loans are associated with takeovers and low initial wealth with start-ups, so finance shapes the mode of entry. Country: France. (Abstract source: Springer page; online 2011, issue 2013.)
Sourcedoi:10.1007/s11187-011-9391-y67 citations (OpenAlex)
A4other
Xi, G., Block, J., Lasch, F., Robert, F., & Thurik, R. (2020)
Industrial and Corporate Change, 29(3), 797-826
Compares survival by entry mode using two large French datasets (the INSEE SINE cohorts; SINE 2002 is named in the article's figure caption). Takeovers survive longer than start-ups, but the gap shrinks over the life cycle and once entrepreneur and firm characteristics are controlled; the determinants of survival differ between the two groups. Country: France.
Sourcedoi:10.1093/icc/dtz07627 citations (OpenAlex)
A5other
Xi, G., Block, J., Lasch, F., Robert, F., & Thurik, R. (2018)
Revue de l'Entrepreneuriat, 17(2), 91-112
French data again: small-firm work experience raises the likelihood of takeover, whereas management experience and same-sector experience raise the likelihood of a new venture. Note the sign on management experience is the opposite of Parker and van Praag (A1).
Sourcedoi:10.3917/e.entre.172.009112 citations (OpenAlex)
A6FT50
Cooper, A. C., & Dunkelberg, W. C. (1986)
Strategic Management Journal, 7(1), 53-68
Examines alternative paths to ownership (starting, purchasing, inheriting, being promoted or brought in) and hypothesises that they involve different "degrees of entrepreneurship". Data on 1,756 owner-managers are used to relate path to background, motivations and prior careers. The abstract does not name the country or source (the sample is generally described as a US small-business owner survey; treat that detail as UNVERIFIED from the abstract).
Sourcedoi:10.1002/smj.4250070106406 citations (OpenAlex)
A7FT50
Chaganti, R., & Schneer, J. A. (1994)
Journal of Business Venturing, 9(3), 243-260
Asks whether performance and management patterns differ across owner-started, buyout and family firms. Data: 345 firms with 4 to 99 employees in four northeastern US states; self-reported ROA, sales, strengths, strategies and practices are compared. The portion of the abstract retrieved does not state the findings. (Abstract source: ScienceDirect page, partial.) This is one of the few US micro studies that codes "bought the firm" as an entry mode.
Sourcedoi:10.1016/0883-9026(94)90032-954 citations (OpenAlex)
A8near-FT50
Ucbasaran, D., Wright, M., & Westhead, P. (2003)
Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 15(3), 207-228
Case-study research contrasting habitual starters with habitual acquirers (people who have purchased more than one business) through a human capital lens, focusing on search and opportunity identification. Produces propositions, not tests. The explicit "acquirer" category is rare in this literature.
Sourcedoi:10.1080/08985620210145009184 citations (OpenAlex)
A9FT50
Holmes, T. J., & Schmitz, J. A. (1990)
Journal of Political Economy, 98(2), 265-294
Formal model in which business transfers (including sales of firms) are a mechanism for division of labour between those good at creating businesses and those good at running them; discusses evidence on transfers through firm sales. The theoretical root of the "builders sell to managers" argument.
Sourcedoi:10.1086/261678365 citations (OpenAlex)
A10FT50
Holmes, T. J., & Schmitz, J. A. (1995)
Journal of Political Economy, 103(5), 1005-1038
Structural model of small business failure and sale with two features: a manager-business match, and business characteristics that outlive the current match. Parameters are estimated on evidence about how failure and sale vary with business age and manager tenure.
Sourcedoi:10.1086/26201192 citations (OpenAlex)
A11other
Holmes, T. J., & Schmitz, J. A. (1996)
Journal of Labor Economics, 14(1), 79-99
Descriptive companion using the US Census Bureau 1982 Characteristics of Business Owners survey. Holding business age fixed, both failure and sale probabilities fall with manager tenure; holding tenure fixed, failure falls with business age. Country: United States.
Sourcedoi:10.1086/20980462 citations (OpenAlex)
A12other
Bates, T. (1990)
Review of Economics and Statistics, 72(4), 551-559
Nationwide US random sample of men who entered self-employment between 1976 and 1982, tracked to 1986. Owner education and start-up financial capital predict survival; leverage does not raise failure risk. Relevant because the "debt-financed entry is riskier" assumption is not supported in this sample.
Sourcedoi:10.2307/21095941259 citations (OpenAlex)
A13other
Fairlie, R. W., & Robb, A. (2007)
ILR Review, 60(2), 225-245
Restricted-access 1992 US Characteristics of Business Owners data. Business success is strongly correlated with prior work experience in a family member's business, only weakly with merely having a self-employed relative; only 1.6% of small businesses surveyed were inherited. Country: United States.
Sourcedoi:10.1177/001979390706000204338 citations (OpenAlex)
A14other
Lentz, B. F., & Laband, D. N. (1990)
Canadian Journal of Economics, 23(3), 563-579
Roughly half of self-employed proprietors are second-generation; informal experience gained growing up in a family business substitutes for schooling and predicts greater proprietary success. (Abstract source: EconPapers/RePEc.)
Sourcedoi:10.2307/135648280 citations (OpenAlex)
A15FT50
Cooper, A. C., Gimeno-Gascon, F. J., & Woo, C. Y. (1994)
Journal of Business Venturing, 9(5), 371-395
Longitudinal study of 1,053 new ventures across sectors and regions predicting failure, marginal survival or high growth from initial human and financial capital. General human capital and industry-specific know-how matter; management know-how has more limited impact. Included as the human capital benchmark that acquisition studies borrow from. (Abstract source: reprint record in OpenAlex.)
Sourcedoi:10.1016/0883-9026(94)90013-22299 citations (OpenAlex)
A16near-FT50
van Balen, T., de Regt, A., & de Jong, J. P. J. (2026)
International Small Business Journal, online first
Introduces a "liability of misfit" (inability to work with inherited organisational structures). 12 years of panel data on 903 entrepreneurs (Netherlands, EIM panel 1994 to 2005, per the article's data section); discrete-time hazard models. Lacking industry and functional experience raises exit risk after takeover entry; post-entry knowledge acquisition can compensate. Limitations read directly: data predate digitalisation, measures are self-reported, and liquidity and access to external finance are unobserved.
Sourcedoi:10.1177/026624262614704030 citations (OpenAlex)
A17FT50
Balasubramanian, N., Sivadasan, J., & Xu, W. (2024)
Strategic Management Journal, 45(7), 1300-1325
Tests whether making acquisitions less attractive to buyers changes entry and exit. Uses comprehensive US establishment data (US Census Bureau, per the data availability statement) and staggered judicial adoption of successor product-line liability. After adoption, acquisitions of manufacturing establishments fall, closures rise and relative entry falls, more so for smaller entrants. This is the clearest recent FT50 paper treating the market for existing businesses as part of the entrepreneurial entry decision, with US micro data.
Sourcedoi:10.1002/smj.35843 citations (OpenAlex)
A18FT50
Zellweger, T., Sieger, P., & Halter, F. (2011)
Career choice intentions of students with family business background. Journal of Business Venturing, 26(5), 521-536
Theory of planned behaviour applied to intentional founders, successors and employees among students with a family business background. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy and the independence motive order the three career intentions; high internal locus of control unexpectedly predicts employment. (Abstract source: EconPapers/RePEc.)
Sourcedoi:10.1016/j.jbusvent.2010.04.001694 citations (OpenAlex)
A19near-FT50
Pittino, D., Visintin, F., & Lauto, G. (2018)
A configurational analysis of family embeddedness and individual attributes in the entrepreneurial entry decision by next-generation members. Family Business Review, 31(3), 271-294
Configurational analysis of 169 Italian entrepreneurs with a family business background, explaining succession versus founding a new venture.
Sourcedoi:10.1177/089448651877386786 citations (OpenAlex)
A20near-FT50
Lauto, G., Pittino, D., & Visintin, F. (2020)
Journal of Small Business Management, 58(3), 474-510
Job satisfaction and perceived decision discretion are lower for successors than for founders; discretion fully mediates the link between mode of entry and satisfaction. Raises an untested question for non-family acquirers.
Sourcedoi:10.1080/00472778.2019.166093735 citations (OpenAlex)
A21other
Mahone, Z. (2023)
Review of Economic Dynamics, 51, 1114-1158
Combines US survey and transaction data to characterise the resale market for wholly owned businesses: an estimated 2.9% of businesses are sold annually and the median sale takes 170 to 200 days. Estimates a search and matching model with data from an online market; removing the secondary market cuts output by almost 21% while raising entry rates by 2.5 points. (Abstract source: ScienceDirect page.)
Sourcedoi:10.1016/j.red.2023.10.0021 citations (OpenAlex)
A22other
Viljamaa, A., Joensuu-Salo, S., & Varamäki, E. (2024)
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 31(5), 1021-1038
Survey of 1,192 firms with owners aged over 55 in one European country (the authors' group is Finnish; the abstract says only "a single European country"). Owners who entered by buying are more likely to plan to sell; family successors plan family succession.
Sourcedoi:10.1108/jsbed-05-2023-02036 citations (OpenAlex)
A23near-FT50
Ennew, C., Robbie, K., Wright, M., & Thompson, S. (1994)
International Small Business Journal, 12(4), 28-44
Describes management buy-ins as "a new form of small firm, where individual entrepreneurs with institutional backing acquire an existing company". Sample of 59 UK buy-ins (mean 147 employees, median 63); three clusters of buy-in entrepreneurs, no significant performance differences between clusters. This 1994 paper is the closest historical analogue to a study of investor-backed searchers.
Sourcedoi:10.1177/026624269412400214 citations (OpenAlex)