Nascent entrepreneurship and the developing individual: Early entrepreneurial competence in adolescence and venture creation success during the career

Martin Obschonka, Rainer K. Silbereisen, Eva Schmitt-Rodermund and Michael Stuetzer
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Michael Stützer

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: What predicts a person's venture creation success over the course of the career, such as making progress in the venture creation process and multiple successful venture creations? Applying a life span approach of human development, this study examined the effect of early entrepreneurial competence in adolescence, which was gathered retrospectively by means of the Life History Calendar method. Human and social capitals during the founding process were investigated as mediators between adolescent competence and performance. Findings were derived from regression analyses on the basis of prospective and retrospective data from two independent samples (N=88 nascent founders; N=148 founders). We found that early entrepreneurial competence in adolescence had a positive effect on making progress in the venture creation process. Nascent founders' current human and social capital also had a direct effect, but it did not mediate the effect of early competences. Finally, the data revealed that early entrepreneurial competence in adolescence positively predicted habitual entrepreneurship (multiple successful venture creations) exhibited over a longer period of the individual career (specifically, 18 years). In linewith the results fromprospective longitudinal studies on early precursors of entrepreneurship, our findings underscore the long neglected importance of adolescent development in the explanation of entrepreneurial performance during the subsequent working life.

Keywords: Nascent entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial success; Adolescent competence; Venture creation; Human and social capital; Habitual entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 L26 M13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-10-06, Revised 2010-12-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published in Journal of Vocational Behavior 1.79(2011): pp. 121-133

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