Entrepreneurial persistence beyond survival: Measurement and determinants

Abstract

Entrepreneurial persistence is demonstrated by an entrepreneur's continued positive maintenance of entrepreneurial motivation and constantly renewed active engagement in a new business venture despite counterforces or enticing alternatives. It thus is a crucial factor for entrepreneurs when pursuing and exploiting their business opportunities and in realizing potential economic gains and benefits. Using rich data on a representative sample of German business founders, we investigated the determinants of entrepreneurial persistence. Next to observed survival, we also constructed a hybrid persistence measure capturing the motivational dimension of persistence. We analyzed the influence of individual-level (human capital and personality) and businessrelated characteristics on both measures as well as their relative importance. We found that the two indicators emphasize different aspects of persistence. For the survival indicator, the predictive power was concentrated in business characteristics and human capital, while for hybrid persistence the dominant factors were business characteristics and personality. Finally, we showed that results were heterogeneous across subgroups. In particular, formerly unemployed founders did not differ in survival chances, but they were more likely to lack a high psychological commitment to their business ventures.

Advancing entrepreneurial career success: the role of passion, persistence, and risk-taking propensity

“…Persistence as a potential mediator Persistence has been deemed a necessary characteristic of successful entrepreneurs (Caliendo et al, 2020;Kuratko & Hodgetts, 2007;Wu, Matthews, & Dagher, 2007). Entrepreneurial persistence is displayed by an entrepreneur's constant optimistic upkeep of entrepreneurial enthusiasm and endlessly revived vigorous effort in a new business venture in the face of opposing pressures or attractive options.…”

Persistence in Self-Employment Rates before the Great Lockdown: The Case of the UK

“…The first group of works-based on cross/pooled sectional micro-data files-explores this question either by estimating models of survival for different groups of self-employed workers or by exploring the determinants and characteristics of those self-employed who decide to abandon self-employment to enter another state (paid-employment, unemployment or inactivity). The outcomes of these works are well summarized in [9,29,30]. This branch of literature has evolved from a first generation of works with apparently contradictory or at least non-robust results to a second wave of literature in which the explicit recognition of the heterogeneity among self-employed workers has contributed decisively to solve the previous puzzle shedding new light on these hypotheses [30].…”

“…On the one hand, one could speculate that it is the result of the reaction to the British economy creating too little paid employment and the opportunity cost of self-employment being relatively low. If that were true, marginal entrepreneurs (and in particular those that were formerly unemployed-necessity entrepreneurs) might show a high survival rate more closely linked to the lack of employment opportunities than to success [9]. Sustainability 2020, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 12 creating too little paid employment and the opportunity cost of self-employment being relatively low.…”

“…Sustainability 2020, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 12 creating too little paid employment and the opportunity cost of self-employment being relatively low. If that were true, marginal entrepreneurs (and in particular those that were formerly unemployed-necessity entrepreneurs) might show a high survival rate more closely linked to the lack of employment opportunities than to success [9]. In addition, the existence of different schemes of entrepreneurship promotion could reinforce the effects of this self-employment revival [10,11].…”

Do Entrepreneurship Skills Improve Project Performance? A Project-Based Learning Perspective

“…Entrepreneurship has attracted attention among practitioners and scholars because of its importance in economic growth, job creation and productivity (Ambad & Damit, 2016;Caliendo et al, 2020;Vicentini et al, 2019;Voda & Florea, 2019). There is increased use of a project-based learning approach to teach entrepreneurial skills, since this approach promotes a feeling of authenticity and action-based learning (Okudan & Rzasa, 2006;Oosterbeek et al, 2010;Rasmussen & Sørheim, 2006).…”