Education, experience, social network and firm survival: the case of the electrical fittings cluster in Sargodha, Pakistan.

In modern era of industrialization, firm survival is widely acknowledged and geared through industrial cluster in developing countries. The present study unfolds the impact of education, experience and social network on firm death by using two rounds of electrical fittings cluster survey from 2008 to 2017. The empirical outcomes from Cox PH model spotlight that entrepreneurs are relatively more educated, rich in experience of production and marketing, have low hazard rate in their business. The empirical analysis also revealed that firm survival can be achieved through strong social network of entrepreneur. The study findings infer that Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority and United Nations Industrial Development Organization training programs are needed to focus on cluster entrepreneurs and sustained firm survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]