The impact of family support on young entrepreneurs' start-up activities

In this paper, we use a social support perspective and hypothesize that the scope of start-up activities is positively associated with two types of instrumental family support, financial and social capital. We further argue that the effect of instrumental family support is enhanced by the level of emotional support, in the form of family cohesiveness. To test our hypotheses, we draw from the 2011 Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS), a survey of university students from 19 countries. We focus on those nascent entrepreneurs who are in the process of starting their new venture (n = 12,399). Our findings indicate that family social capital is positively associated with the scope of start-up activities, family financial capital is negatively associated with the scope of start-up activities, and family cohesiveness amplifies the effect of family social capital on the scope of start-up activities. Theoretical, practitioner, and public policy implications are discussed.