The Entrepreneurs Education Level and Start-up Success. A study on the effects of a founders educational degree on start-up success

Abstract: Using a quantitative method his study empirically examines what effect the founders educational level has on the success of a newly founded business. In a dataset of 145 Swedish companies founded between 2010 and 2015 the study divides the companies in four groups reflecting the founders educational level. The key success factors of business survival, revenue growth, profit and solvency ratio are then compared between the groups. Mean comparison results show that the founder's higher educational degree has a significant correlation with both solvency and firm survival. These conclusions have implications for both human capital theory and signaling theory and can practically be used by future entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers to make better decisions. Finally, this study raises multiple future research questions that go deeper into the connection between higher education and start-up success.