Is the Tendency to Engage in Entrepreneurship Genetic?

Nicos Nicolaou (), Scott Shane (), Lynn Cherkas (), Janice Hunkin () and Tim D. Spector ()
Additional contact information
Nicos Nicolaou: Department of Public and Business Administration, University of Cyprus, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
Scott Shane: Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106
Lynn Cherkas: Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, King's College London, St. Thomas' Hospital Campus, London SE1 7EH, United Kingdom
Janice Hunkin: Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, King's College London, St. Thomas' Hospital Campus, London SE1 7EH, United Kingdom
Tim D. Spector: Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, King's College London, St. Thomas' Hospital Campus, London SE1 7EH, United Kingdom

Management Science, 2008, vol. 54, issue 1, 167-179

Abstract: We used quantitative genetics techniques to compare the entrepreneurial activity of 870 pairs of monozygotic (MZ) and 857 pairs of same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twins from the United Kingdom. We ran model-fitting analyses to estimate the genetic, shared environmental and nonshared environmental effects on the propensity of people to become entrepreneurs. We found relatively high heritabilities for entrepreneurship across different operationalizations of the phenomenon, with little effect of family environment and upbringing. Our findings suggest the importance of considering genetic factors in explanations for why people engage in entrepreneurial activity.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; twin studies; behavioral genetics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (134)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1070.0761 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:54:y:2008:i:1:p:167-179

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Management Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().