Should I stay or leave The role of human, financial and social capital in entrepreneurial exit

Understanding the reasons of entrepreneurial exit remains one of the critical problems in entrepreneurship research. This study investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial capitals (human, social and financial) and probability of business discontinuation due to voluntary or failure-based reasons, accounting for the moderating role of opportunity recognition. We test our hypotheses based on 2019 GEM APS data covering 28,192 respondents from 48 countries. The results revealed that different elements of entrepreneurial capital lead to a higher probability of both voluntary and failure-based exit as compared to non-exit. Moreover, the positive perception of business opportunities strengthens the link between financial capital availability and the likelihood of entrepreneurial exit. The findings show the important role of all types of entrepreneurial capital in perceiving higher opportunity costs of continuing current business rather than closing it as well as context-specific nature of the exit decision. Implications are discussed.