Entrepreneurship: it’s all about the genes?
What determines levels of entrepreneurship? I would normally argue the quality of business regulations, access to finance, education levels, ambition etc... – but some argue that genes may be the key. For example, one study:
Compared rates of entrepreneurship between and among more than 1,200 pairs of identical and fraternal twins in the U.K and conclude that nearly half—48 percent—of an individual's propensity to become self-employed is genetic…
While another found that:
The results of our research support the primary hypothesis that individuals with higher salivary testosterone levels are more likely to behave entrepreneurially.
Controlling for institutional environment, entrepreneurs in China are much more likely to have family members who are entrepreneurs as well as childhood friends who became entrepreneurs, suggesting that social environment plays an important role in entrepreneurship.
I think I lean towards nurture over nature on this one, or at least that nurture can prevail over nature. Via the namesakes: Future Pundit and Business Pundit (so maybe it really is all in the genes?), who have more commentary.
Update: MSNBC is running a pole, with 'entrepreneurs being born not made' winning so far. The BBC has more.
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I have also asked whether these entrepreneruship classes in MBA schools are worth anything. Can you really teach entrepreneurship? I have always thought it is much more the passion within someone and their desire to be their own boss. Though perhaps its a self-selection thing in terms of who enrolls in these classes that make them work? (If they work of course)
Posted by: Sandra | Jun 15, 2006 9:30:32 AM
Its about the environment governments and parents create - not the genes parents pass on.
Posted by: Realist. | Jun 15, 2006 10:00:09 AM
I think entrepreneurship education - not in MBA schools but on a more fundamental level - plays a very important role in many emerging economies. The culture of entrepreneurship is taken for granted in many developed countries - and people don't realize that there are places where people have a 'fear of the unknown' in the market economy, they look towards government as a sole provider of jobs, and really think that there are no other options if there is no employment in the public sector. Entrepreneurship education plays its part in opening the eyes of the young people and getting them to think about the alternatives in the economic marketplace. So, I guess I "lean towards nurture over nature" on this one too.
Posted by: Aleksandr Shkolnikov | Jun 19, 2006 3:05:27 PM