A Longitudinal Examination of The Impact of Founding Owner Operator Characteristics on Nascent Venture Performance: Evidence from the Kauffman Firm Survey

Abstract

This study attempts to revive and clarify the debate on ‘the entrepreneurial man’. We longitudinally examined the effects of seven founding-owner-operator characteristics (prior industry experience, level of formal education, age, gender, ethnicity and time committed to business operations) on nascent venture performance. Our results indicate that owner work experience, level of education and hours worked in the business have significant effect on nascent venture performance, while inadequate owner reputation and luck of ethnic social capital may negatively affect nascent venture performance. Our findings also suggest that characteristic of the ‘entrepreneurial man’ are dynamic and leans towards a temporal contingency model. Different entrepreneur characteristics seem to assume prominence in firm performance at different times in a nascent venture’s life trajectory.