Capital psychologique, capital social de l’entrepreneur et performance des entreprises nouvellement créées : quelques particularités de l’hypercroissance

Some entrepreneurs are more successful than others in setting up and growing a business, which has led many researchers to look for the causes in developed countries. However, little research on this subject exists for African countries. In this context, the purpose of this study on Cameroon is twofold. First, we analyze the combined effect of the entrepreneur?s psychological and social capital on the performance of their startup. The social capital of the entrepreneur through weak and strong ties is seen as a moderator of the relationship between their psychological capital and the performance of their company. Secondly, we seek to identify possible differences between entrepreneurs who have reached a level of hypergrowth and others, in a context where innovation is not abundant. The results of econometric analyses show that the entrepreneur?s psychological and social capital, taken separately, have a positive effect on the performance of startups. When social capital is combined with psychological capital, however, the effect is even stronger. Hence the positive moderating role played by the strong and weak ties of the entrepreneur?s social capital. In addition to this, our results indicate that the hypergrowth of some firms can be partly explained by the high level of psychological capital possessed by their founders, but also by an effective combination of psychological and social capital, integrating the weak and strong ties. This combination enables them to better leverage the weak and strong ties that make up their social capital, and to achieve hypergrowth. Recommendations are made based on the results obtained.