PSED II and the Kauffman Firm Survey

Abstract

While new firm creation is an important feature of modern economies, research on major aspects of the early stages of the business life course is hampered by the length and complexity of the process. Conceptual complexity is reflected in the difficulty of developing simple, precise measures of initiating the firm gestation process, or conception, as well as the transition from a nascent enterprise to an operating business – a new firm birth. The length of the process is reflected in the substantial time many nascent enterprises stay in the gestation process. It takes over 5 years after conception for over 90% to reach a resolution as new firms or to be abandoned; one-third seem to continue indefinitely as nascent enterprises (Reynolds, 2007).