entrepreneur report

Derek Newberry — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:30:42 -0500

Hi Rombout, Please do email us, I would love to read your report. You can send it to info@nextbillion.net.

Thanks!

-Derek

Study on different types of entrepreneurs

Rombout — Mon, 05 May 2008 08:06:40 -0500

dear Derek Newberry, I have read your comments with great interest. It happens to be that I have conducted a study on the role of entrepreneurship in Africa at the end of 2006. Should you be interested in reading it, I could email it to you!

Entrepreneurs: Smart, Social....Taller?

Derek Newberry — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:19:31 -0500

“What Makes an Entrepreneur?” asks a World Bank study released last month. The authors found answers by conducting interviews with 400 Brazilian entrepreneurs, non-entrepreneurs and “failed” entrepreneurs on a variety of subjects that range from the obvious (Parents' level of education?) to the somewhat bizarre (Can you justify taking a bus ride without paying the fare?).

The results reveal some fascinating insights through a nature vs. nurture type lens. The authors claim that entrepreneurs tend to have better educated parents and more childhood friends/siblings that eventually became entrepreneurs. In other words, their personal influences and environment play a significant role (nurture).

The researchers also note that certain supposedly inherent traits play a role – that entrepreneurs proved to have greater cognitive abilities than non-entrepreneurs, for example. So entrepreneurship is also a product of a person’s very DNA (nature…. Although I would argue that not only is intelligence at least partially a product of one’s upbringing, but that there is a great deal of cultural bias in what even gets defined as “intelligence”).

Possibilities of an entrepreneurship gene aside, the authors do find compelling similarities between entrepreneurs in Brazil, and even failed entrepreneurs – apparently overconfidence is one common thread for the latter group. Some of the results scream wonky statistician – the study reports at one point that the entrepreneurs are on average one centimeter taller than non-entrepreneurs – but reading the paper got me thinking.

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entrepreneur report

Study on different types of entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs: Smart, Social....Taller?