Abstract: With the increasing uncertainty of the entrepreneurial environment, it is so critical for entrepreneurs to choose whether to persist in or give up their entrepreneurial projects. Previous studies have indicated that the entrepreneurs’ human capital is closely related to entrepreneurial persistence, but there are inconsistent conclusions about human capital and entrepreneurial persistence-ranging from positive relationships to negative ones. To solve this problem, drawing on upper echelons’ theory, our paper divides human capital into general human capital and specific human capital, and introduces entrepreneurial anxiety as the moderator to explore the different effects of different kind of human capital on entrepreneurial persistence. Based on two questionnaire surveys and one semi-structured interview, the empirical results show that there is a negative relationship between general human capital and entrepreneurial persistence, while there is a positive relationship between specific human capital and entrepreneurial persistence. And entrepreneurial anxiety intensifies the negative effect of general human capital on entrepreneurial persistence and magnifies the positive effect of specific human capital on entrepreneurial persistence. The conclusion reveals the complex relationship between human capital and entrepreneurial persistence, clarifies the key boundary conditions between them, promotes the development of human capital theory in entrepreneurial field, enriches the researches of the antecedents of entrepreneurial persistence, and deepens our understanding of entrepreneurial anxiety.

Key words: general human capital, specific human capital, entrepreneurial persistence, entrepreneurial anxiety