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Is Entrepreneurial Success Predictable? An Ex-Ante Analysis of the Character-Based Approach

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Author Info
Marco Caliendo ()
Alexander S. Kritikos ()

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Abstract

This paper empirically analyzes whether the character-based approach, which focuses on the personality structure and the human capital of business founders, allows prediction of entrepreneurial success. A unique data set is used consisting of 414 persons whose personal characteristics were analyzed by different methods, namely an one-day assessment center (AC) and a standardized questionnaire, before they launched their business. Results are partly unexpected and weaker than previous ex-post findings: first, we found correlations between the AC data and the questionnaire in one subgroup only. Second, the predictive power of the AC data is slightly better than that of the questionnaire, but lower than expected in theory. Interestingly, for those subgroups where the AC data have low predictive power, the questionnaire does better. Third, when success is measured in terms of employees hired, the character-based approach is a poor predictor.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Hanseatic University, Germany, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 001.

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Length: 38 pages
Date of creation: Jan 2008
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Handle: RePEc:phu:wpaper:001

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Web page: http://www.hanseuni.com

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  1. Marco Caliendo & Alexander S. Kritikos, 2008. "Start-Ups by the Unemployed: Characteristics, Survival and Direct Employment Effects," Working Papers 008, Hanseatic University, Germany, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Hartog, Joop & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada & Jonker, Nicole, 2002. "Linking Measured Risk Aversion to Individual Characteristics," Kyklos, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(1), pages 3-26.
  3. Edward P. Lazear, 2004. "Balanced Skills and Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 208-211, May. [Downloadable!]
  4. Dunn, Thomas & Holtz-Eakin, Douglas, 2000. "Financial Capital, Human Capital, and the Transition to Self-Employment: Evidence from Intergenerational Links," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(2), pages 282-305, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. J. Wagner, 2003. "Testing Lazear's jack-of-all-trades view of entrepreneurship with German micro data," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 10(11), pages 687-689, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Marco Caliendo & Alexander S. Kritikos & Frank Wießner, 2006. "Existenzgründungsförderung in Deutschland: Zwischenergebnisse aus der Hartz-Evaluation," Working Papers 0006, Gesellschaft für Arbeitsmarktaktivierung (GfA). [Downloadable!]
  7. Milo Bianchi & Magnus Henrekson, 2005. "Is Neoclassical Economics still Entrepreneurless?," Kyklos, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 58(3), pages 353-377, 07. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Marco Caliendo & Frank M. Fossen & Alexander S. Kritikos, 2006. "Risk Attitudes of Nascent Entrepreneurs : New Evidence from an Experimentally-Validated Survey," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 600, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Holmes, Thomas J & Schmitz, James A, Jr, 1990. "A Theory of Entrepreneurship and Its Application to the Study of Business Transfers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(2), pages 265-94, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Brandstatter, Hermann, 1997. "Becoming an entrepreneur -- A question of personality structure?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 18(2-3), pages 157-177, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Robert E. Lucas Jr., 1978. "On the Size Distribution of Business Firms," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(2), pages 508-523, Autumn. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Thomas Dunn & Douglas Holtz-Eakin, 2000. "Financial Capital, Human Capital, and the Transition to Self-Employment:Evidence from Intergenerational Links," NBER Working Papers 5622, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Evans, David S & Jovanovic, Boyan, 1989. "An Estimated Model of Entrepreneurial Choice under Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 808-27, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Pfeiffer, Friedhelm & Reize, Frank, 2000. "Business start-ups by the unemployed -- an econometric analysis based on firm data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 629-663, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Bonnett, Celia & Furnham, Adrian, 1991. "Who wants to be an entrepreneur? A study of adolescents interested in a Young Enterprise scheme," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 465-478, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew J, 1998. "What Makes an Entrepreneur?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 26-60, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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