TYPES OF ENTREPRENEURS

Studies have made a distinction between nascent (i.e., individuals considering the establishment of a new business), novice (i.e., individuals with no prior business ownership experience as a business founder, an inheritor or a purchaser of a business), habitual (i.e., individuals with prior business ownership experience), serial (i.e., individuals who have sold / closed their original business but at a later date have inherited, established and / or purchased another business), and portfolio entrepreneurs (i.e., individuals who have retained their original business but a later date have inherited, established and / or purchased another business) (Westhead and Wright, 1998a; Wright, Westhead and Sohl, 1998; Delmar and Davidsson, 2000). There is an increased awareness of the need for a greater understanding of the processes and strategies selected by different types of entrepreneurs (Hornaday, 1990; Rosa, 1998) to grow their ventures.

Studies have now begun to focus upon the pre-venture creation stage during which individuals may be described as nascent entrepreneurs (Delmar and Davidsson, 2000). Reynolds (1997) found that nascent entrepreneurs are not homogeneous, with the age of the entrepreneur and their previous employment status being important discriminators. Carter, Gartner and Reynolds (1996) showed that the individuals actually found to establish a business had undertaken more activities, including gathering the necessary resources, to ensure that their business idea was tangible than those who had given up. Longitudinal studies are important in order to provide insights into the extent to which nascent entrepreneurs actually start businesses and the processes that are involved. Additional research in this area might usefully examine the links between pre-start-up activities and venture success rates. Studies seem to be warranted that focus upon whether the difference between those individuals who successfully start a business and those who give up is attributable to the nature of the opportunity, to the commitment and expectations of the nascent entrepreneur or to the level of resource availability in the external environment. Alsos and Kolvereid (1998) have presented a study that begins to shed light on these issues. They found that portfolio founders had a higher probability of venture implementation than novice or serial founders.

Posted by Bimo Panji

On 10.22