دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی بررسی تاثیر انواع مختلف تجربه کارآفرینی قبل بر عملکرد شرکت کارفرما - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

We investigate the impact of prior entrepreneurial experience on current performance of firms with employees (employer firms). We distinguish between external entrepreneurial experience obtained outside of the current firm and internal entrepreneurial experience obtained within the boundaries of the employer firm currently run. Regarding the latter we focus on a special type of prior internal experience, i.e. as an own-account worker before scaling up to employer firm. Theoretically, both types of prior entrepreneurial experience are associated with different processes of learning-by-doing. Empirically, we find that both external entrepreneurial experience and internal experience as an own-account worker enhance employer firm performance. Our results therefore imply that, for individuals without any prior entrepreneurial experience wishing to start a new firm, a lean start-up strategy (as an own-account worker) is to be preferred over a more resourceful strategy hiring employees from the start.

Discussion and conclusions

We have investigated the impact of prior entrepreneurial experience on current performance of employer firms. We have distinguished between external entrepreneurial experience obtained outside of the current firm and internal entrepreneurial experience obtained within the boundaries of the employer firm currently run. Regarding the latter we have focused on a special type of prior internal experience, i.e. as an own-account worker before scaling up to employer firm (i.e. internal entrepreneurial experience obtained during a lean start-up phase). Theoretically, we have shown that internal and external prior entrepreneurial experience is associated with different processes of learning-by-doing. Empirically, we have found that both external entrepreneurial experience and internal experience as an own-account worker enhance employer firm performance. Regarding internal entrepreneurial experience, we have shown that lean start-ups that made it to the stage of employer firms, outperform unexperienced employer entrepreneurs that started resourced from the outset. Our results therefore imply that, for ambitious individuals without any prior entrepreneurial experience wishing to start a new firm, i.e. novice entrepreneurs, a lean start-up learning strategy (as an own-account worker) is to be preferred over a more resourceful strategy hiring employees from the start. Lean start-up is a low cost strategy to overcome the challenges related to starting and running a new firm which minimises financial requirements, lowers risk and enhances flexibility plus often entails holding back some financial resources for the unforeseen thereby enabling business to be more agile and if necessary pivot if the evolving contextual circumstances require it. Although our results apply to own-account start-ups that evolve to become employers, data constraints do not permit us to test the wider question of whether on average lean start-up strategy is more effective than “big bang” start-ups — an answer which requires data on pilot launches that do not evolve to become employer businesses.