The influence of business knowledge and work experience, as antecedents to entrepreneurial success

Abstract

This study investigated the role of business knowledge and work experience, as antecedents towards explaining entrepreneurial success. The encouragement of entrepreneurial activities has been recommended as a way to stimulate economic growth. On of the most critical issues facing developing countries is to understand where entrepreneurs originate from and what characteristics are relevant to their success. Although entrepreneurs act as catalysts of economic activity for the entire economy many of them fail. Most entrepreneurs often start a new venture ignorant of many key dimensions of running their businesses and must obtain the necessary information if they are to survive. Entrepreneurial competency, largely acquired on an individual basis, consists of a combination of skills, knowledge and resources that distinguish an entrepreneur from his or her competitors. This research study reviewed the two constructs namely entrepreneurial business knowledge and work experience, from the available literature and through scientific empirical research reported their effects on entrepreneurial success. Entrepreneurial business knowledge refers to the ascribe roles for managerial expertise in entrepreneurial success and entails, to varying degrees marketing, financial management/book-keeping, self-supervision, and, if applicable, the supervision of paid employees or unpaid family workers, among other activities. Experience refers to the knowledge or ability of an individual gained due to circumstances in a particular job, organisation, or industry. Some researchers have indicated that a lack of business knowledge and/or business experience hinders firm growth and entrepreneurial success. Despite some of the significant findings, a large amount of the variance in business knowledge and work experience remained unexplained. This unexplained variance, however, was consistent with other investigations. There was tentative evidence to support the role of business knowledge and work experience, as entrepreneurial success antecedents. However the evidence was not conclusive and further in depth research would have to done in order to reach a conclusive finding. Copyright 2004, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Barreira, JCD 2004, The influence of business knowledge and work experience, as antecedents to entrepreneurial success, PhD thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-08232004-100614 / >