The Relation Between Ability And Post Start-Up Success For Entrepreneurs

The literature widely argues that there is a strong and positive causal relationship between the entrepreneur’s abilities and post start-up success. Hence, implying that founders with limited abilities are likely to be at a greater disadvantage due to these very inabilities. However, even though the advantages of their abilities may appear as intuitively obvious, there exists a lack of well developed theoretical foundations to the causal link between the entrepreneurs ability and future venture performance. The paper is based on a literature review on the relationship between ability and future venture performance. The starting point stems from the notion of entrepreneurial learning, and we ask the question “What is entrepreneurial learning and how do abilities acquired through learning affect the future performance of a new firm? Using learning theory, we try to outline possible directions. We then review the entrepreneurial literature linking it with education, managerial experience, start-up experience, and industry experience. In conclusion we design a causal model which integrates the literature review on entrepreneurial ability and learning theory, with respect to future venture performance.