Innovative opportunity pursuit, human capital and business ownership experience in an emerging region: evidence from Ghana

摘要

This study explores whether an entrepreneur’s ability to assemble and leverage human capital, particularly specific human capital relating to prior business ownership experience, is associated with seven types of product and work practices innovation in an emerging region, namely, Ghana. Logistic regression estimation revealed that portfolio entrepreneurs were more likely than novice entrepreneurs to report ‘innovation tried’. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that portfolio entrepreneurs were more likely than other entrepreneurs to report ‘innovation tried and introduced’. If the goals of policy are to increase the ‘quality’ of new business start-ups and maximize investment returns, there is a case to target assistance to portfolio entrepreneurs.