Entrepreneurship motives, entrepreneurial orientation, and duration of new French firms

Jean Bonnet and Nicolas Le Pape

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Abstract: This study empirically examines the link between the post-entry strategies of new entrepreneurs and the duration of the firm. We use a sample of French entrepreneurs who had set up or taken over firms during the first six months of 1994. For firms that were still in operation at least four years later we have information both on the individual pre-entry motives of the entrepreneurs and on the post-entry entrepreneurial orientation (EO). The literature on entrepreneurial orientation (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996) captures different aspects of how a firm operates (pro-activeness, competitive aggressiveness, willingness to take risk, autonomy and innovativeness) in the product market. Using a Cox proportional hazard model, we show that "push" entrepreneurs (unemployed more than one year) who adopt an entrepreneurial orientation (measured in two of its dimensions, pro-activeness and competitive aggressiveness) are globally more likely to survive. An explanation of this result would be that in this category of constrained entrepreneurs the minimum efficient scale (MES) is not reached. The entrepreneurial orientation is then a way to overcome the MES; consequently, product market strategies to capture customers are efficient.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial orientation; entrepreneurial motives; firm; performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Afzalur Rahim. Social Intelligence, Leadership, and Problem Solving, Transaction Publishers, pp.93-106, 2012, Current Topics in Management, Vol. 16

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00771118

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