Individual-level Determinants of Founding Decisions: State-of-the-Art and Future Research Directions (Personenbezogene Determinanten von Unternehmensgründungen: Stand der Forschung und Perspektiven des Fortschritts)

Abstract

This paper reviews the status quo of theoretical and empirical research on individual-level determinants of founding decisions. A synopsis of 99 quantitative studies reveals consistent findings for 33 of 43 determinants. Most studies are theoretically grounded in dispositive, behavioral, or economic research, whereas few studies cover the cognitive or network-oriented perspective. In order to further advance the field, we would suggest to integrate theoretical perspectives, to explicitly distinguish small business owners from entrepreneurs, and to acknowledge higher-level influences by conducting cross-level research in future studies. Working paper in German (a later version was published in Zeitschrift fur Betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung, Vol. 61, No. 2, pp. 57-89, 2011)