IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/zewdip/6649.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Personal Experience: A Most Vicious and Limited Circle!? On the Role of Entrepreneurial Experience for Firm Survival

Author

Listed:
  • Metzger, Georg

Abstract

The analysis in this paper gives attention to effects on firm survival which come from entrepreneurial experience. It is likely that different kinds of experience result in different firm developments and therefore in different types of firm exit. Particular emphasis is placed upon the effects of failure experience. The results provide evidence that both the kind of experience and the type of exit matter. Negative experience, namely the experience of failure, is found to heighten the risk of failing again. This finding indicates that business failures are largely not exceptions, but rather a sign of the entrepreneurs' lack of ability.

Suggested Citation

  • Metzger, Georg, 2007. "Personal Experience: A Most Vicious and Limited Circle!? On the Role of Entrepreneurial Experience for Firm Survival," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-046 [rev.], ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:6649
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/24626/1/dp07046.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jason Cope, 2005. "Toward a Dynamic Learning Perspective of Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(4), pages 373-397, July.
    2. Everett, Jim & Watson, John, 1998. "Small Business Failure and External Risk Factors," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 371-390, December.
    3. Mata, Jose & Portugal, Pedro & Guimaraes, Paulo, 1995. "The survival of new plants: Start-up conditions and post-entry evolution," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 459-481, December.
    4. 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 808-827, August.
    5. Almus, Matthias & Engel, Dirk & Prantl, Susanne, 2000. "The Mannheim Foundation Panels of the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)," ZEW Dokumentationen 00-02, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    6. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Dev K. Dutta & Mary M. Crossan, 2005. "The Nature of Entrepreneurial Opportunities: Understanding the Process Using the 4I Organizational Learning Framework," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(4), pages 425-449, July.
    8. Narendranathan, Wiji & Stewart, Mark B, 1991. "Simple Methods for Testing for the Proportionality of Cause-Specific Hazards in Competing Risk Models," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 53(3), pages 331-340, August.
    9. Cressy, Robert, 1996. "Are Business Startups Debt-Rationed?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(438), pages 1253-1270, September.
    10. P. A. Geroski & José Mata & Pedro Portugal, 2010. "Founding conditions and the survival of new firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 510-529, May.
    11. Audretsch, D.B. & Fritsch, M., 1993. "A Note on the Measurement of Entry Rates," Papers 93-5, Bergakademie Freiberg Technical University - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    12. Bosma, N. & van Praag, M. & de Wit, G., 2000. "Determinants of Successful Entrepreneurship," Papers 0002/e, NEUHUYS - RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM.
    13. Becker, Gary S, 1985. "Human Capital, Effort, and the Sexual Division of Labor," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(1), pages 33-58, January.
    14. Astebro, Thomas & Bernhardt, Irwin, 2003. "Start-up financing, owner characteristics, and survival," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4), pages 303-319.
    15. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1982. "Selection and the Evolution of Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(3), pages 649-670, May.
    16. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, March.
    17. K. J. Arrow, 1971. "The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: F. H. Hahn (ed.), Readings in the Theory of Growth, chapter 11, pages 131-149, Palgrave Macmillan.
    18. Almus, Matthias & Prantl, Susanne & Brüderl, Josef & Stahl, Konrad O. & Woywode, Michael, 2001. "Die ZEW-Gründerstudie: Konzeption und Erhebung," ZEW Dokumentationen 01-01, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    19. Harhoff, Dietmar & Stahl, Konrad & Woywode, Michael, 1998. "Legal Form, Growth and Exit of West German Firms--Empirical Results for Manufacturing, Construction, Trade and Service Industries," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 453-488, December.
    20. Andrew C. Corbett, 2005. "Experiential Learning within the Process of Opportunity Identification and Exploitation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(4), pages 473-491, July.
    21. Wennekers, Sander & Thurik, Roy, 1999. "Linking Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 27-55, August.
    22. Erik Stam & David Audretsch & Joris Meijaard, 2009. "Renascent entrepreneurship," Springer Books, in: Uwe Cantner & Jean-Luc Gaffard & Lionel Nesta (ed.), Schumpeterian Perspectives on Innovation, Competition and Growth, pages 223-237, Springer.
      • Stam, F.C. & Audretsch, D.B. & Meijaard, J., 2006. "Renascent Entrepreneurship," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2006-017-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    23. Diamanto Politis, 2005. "The Process of Entrepreneurial Learning: A Conceptual Framework," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(4), pages 399-424, July.
    24. Stearns, Timothy M. & Carter, Nancy M. & Reynolds, Paul D. & Williams, Mary L., 1995. "New firm survival: Industry, strategy, and location," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 23-42, January.
    25. Westhead, Paul & Wright, Mike, 1998. "Novice, portfolio, and serial founders: are they different?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 173-204, May.
    26. Metzger, Georg, 2006. "Once bitten, twice shy? The performance of entrepreneurial restarts," ZEW Discussion Papers 06-083, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    27. Bechara, Antoine & Damasio, Antonio R., 2005. "The somatic marker hypothesis: A neural theory of economic decision," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 336-372, August.
    28. Dietmar Harhoff & Konrad Stahl & Michaerl Woywode, 1998. "Legal Form, Growth and Exit of West German Firms—Empirical Results for Manufacturing, Construction, Trade and Service Industries," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 453-488, December.
    29. Gaylen N. Chandler, 1996. "Business Similarity as a Moderator of the Relationship between Pre-Ownership Experience and Venture Performance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 20(3), pages 51-65, April.
    30. Taylor, Mark P, 1999. "Survival of the Fittest? An Analysis of Self-Employment Duration in Britain," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(454), pages 140-155, March.
    31. C. Mirjam van Praag, 2003. "Business Survival and Success of Young Small Business Owners," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 03-050/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    32. Eric Van den Steen, 2004. "Rational Overoptimism (and Other Biases)," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 1141-1151, September.
    33. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    34. David Audretsch & Michael Fritsch, 2003. "Linking Entrepreneurship to Growth: The Case of West Germany," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 65-73.
    35. Audretsch, David B & Mahmood, Talat, 1995. "New Firm Survival: New Results Using a Hazard Function," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(1), pages 97-103, February.
    36. Paul Westhead & Deniz Ucbasaran & Mike Wright & Martin Binks, 2005. "Novice, Serial and Portfolio Entrepreneur Behaviour and Contributions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 109-132, September.
    37. Brian Headd, 2001. "Business Success: Factors Leading to Surviving and Closing Successfully," Working Papers 01-01, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    38. Audretsch, David B, 1991. "New-Firm Survival and the Technological Regime," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(3), pages 441-450, August.
    39. Deniz Ucbasaran & Mike Wright & Paul Westhead, 2003. "A longitudinal study of habitual entrepreneurs: starters and acquirers," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 207-228, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Coad, Alex & Frankish, Julian & Roberts, Richard G. & Storey, David J., 2013. "Growth paths and survival chances: An application of Gambler's Ruin theory," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 615-632.
    2. Sandra Gottschalk & Bettina Müller, 2022. "A second chance for failed entrepreneurs: a good idea?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 745-767, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Metzger, Georg, 2006. "Once bitten, twice shy? The performance of entrepreneurial restarts," ZEW Discussion Papers 06-083, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Parker, Simon C., 2013. "Do serial entrepreneurs run successively better-performing businesses?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 652-666.
    3. Masatoshi Kato & Yuji Honjo, 2015. "Entrepreneurial human capital and the survival of new firms in high- and low-tech sectors," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 925-957, November.
    4. Metzger, Georg, 2006. "Afterlife: Who Takes Heart for Restart?," ZEW Discussion Papers 06-038, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Steffen Mueller & Jens Stegmaier, 2015. "Economic failure and the role of plant age and size," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 621-638, March.
    6. Gottschalk, Sandra & Greene, Francis J. & Höwer, Daniel & Müller, Bettina, 2014. "If you don't succeed, should you try again? The role of entrepreneurial experience in venture survival," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-009, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Prantl, Susanne, 2003. "Bankruptcy and Voluntary Liquidation: Evidence for New Firms in East and West Germany after Unification," ZEW Discussion Papers 03-72, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    8. Marco Vivarelli, 2013. "Is entrepreneurship necessarily good? Microeconomic evidence from developed and developing countries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(6), pages 1453-1495, December.
    9. Sandra Gottschalk & Bettina Müller, 2022. "A second chance for failed entrepreneurs: a good idea?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 745-767, August.
    10. Carlos Carreira & Paulino Teixeira, 2011. "The shadow of death: analysing the pre-exit productivity of Portuguese manufacturing firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 337-351, April.
    11. Rocha, Vera & Carneiro, Anabela & Amorim Varum, Celeste, 2015. "Serial entrepreneurship, learning by doing and self-selection," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 91-106.
    12. Metzger, Georg, 2007. "On the Role of Entrepreneurial Experience for Start-up Financing: An Empirical Investigation for Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-047 [rev.], ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. Backman, Mikaela & Karlsson, Charlie, 2020. "Age of managers and employees – Firm survival," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).
    14. Ashish Arora & Anand Nandkumar, 2011. "Cash-Out or Flameout! Opportunity Cost and Entrepreneurial Strategy: Theory, and Evidence from the Information Security Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(10), pages 1844-1860, October.
    15. Daniel Fackler & Claus Schnabel & Joachim Wagner, 2013. "Establishment exits in Germany: the role of size and age," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 683-700, October.
    16. Baptista, Rui & Lima, Francisco & Preto, Miguel Torres, 2012. "How former business owners fare in the labor market? Job assignment and earnings," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 263-276.
    17. Ingrid Verheul & Martin Carree & Roy Thurik, 2009. "Allocation and productivity of time in new ventures of female and male entrepreneurs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 273-291, October.
    18. Masatoshi Kato & Koichiro Onishi & Yuji Honjo, 2017. "Does patenting always help new-firm survival?," Discussion Paper Series 159, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, revised May 2017.
    19. Heather D. Gibson & Georgia Pavlou & Christina Tsochatzi & Melina Vasardani, 2019. "Greece's integration into global value chains," Economic Bulletin, Bank of Greece, issue 50, pages 7-44, December.
    20. Susanne Prantl, 2000. "Post-Entry Selection Among Newly Founded Firms in East and West Germany after Unification: A Competing Risk Model with Forced Bankruptcy Liquidations and Voluntary Liquidations," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1602, Econometric Society.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Entrepreneurial Experience; Business Failure; Firm Survival;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:6649. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zemande.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.