THE IMPORTANCE OF BEHAVIORAL AND SITUATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS - AN INTERNATIONAL RATING STUDY

A judgemental analysis has been executed of the job of entrepreneur in terms of the required behavioural, or 'human', attributes and in term s of the relevance of 'situational' attributes for entrepreneurial suc cess. Ratings were given by 235 consultants and starting entrepreneurs from five European countries. By means of generalizability analysis i t was investigated whether ratings generalized across countries: Natio nality barely had an influence on the ratings. Next, it was questioned whether the type of judge, i.e. consultants or starting entrepreneurs , made a difference. No difference was found for the situational attri butes. However, the behavioural attributes as a whole were judged to b e more important by starters than by consultants. In general, it was n ot so much the type or nationality of the judge, as individual differe nces between judges that had an effect on the ratings. Overall, consen sus was higher among consultants than among starting entrepreneurs, an d higher on the importance of the situational than of the behavioural attributes. The three situational attributes judged as most important were: Number of Clients, Type of Product, and Competition. The three m ost important behavioural attributes were judged to be Market Oriented ness, Perseverance, and Independence (consultants), and Perseverence, Independence, and Financial Control (starters).