Occupational and/or genetic inheritance |
Nicolaou et al. (2008Nicolaou, N., Shane, S., Hunkin, J., Cherkas, L., & Spector, T. (2008). Is the tendency to engage in entrepreneurship genetic? Management Science, 54, 167-179. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1070.0761 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1070.0761...
) |
Structural equation modeling. They studied 870 pairs of homozygous twins and 857 pairs of dizygotic same-sex twins in the UK. |
The authors found evidence that genetics is one of the factors that may contribute to the inheritance of entrepreneurial behavior. |
Colombier and Masclet (2008Colombier, N., & Masclet, D. (2008). Intergenerational correlation in self-employment: some further evidence from French ECHP data. Small Business Economics, 30(4), 423-437. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-007-9059-9 https://link.springer.com/article/10.100...
) |
Probit regression with random effects. French sample of 50,579 individuals, employees, and entrepreneurs, between the years 1994 and 2001. |
Having entrepreneurial parents increases the likelihood that an individual will become an entrepreneur, where the effect of having an entrepreneurial father is 2.40, while that of having an entrepreneurial mother is 1.35. |
Transmission factors |
Authors/Year |
Methods |
Main results |
Occupational and/or genetic inheritance |
Nicolaou and Shane (2010Nicolaou, N., & Shane, S. (2010). Entrepreneurship and occupational choice: Genetic and environmental influences. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 76(1), 314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2010.02.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2010.02.0...
) |
Structural equation modeling, for a sample of 347 homozygous and 303 dizygotic twins in the United States. |
Evidence similar to that of Nicolaou et al. (2008Nicolaou, N., Shane, S., Hunkin, J., Cherkas, L., & Spector, T. (2008). Is the tendency to engage in entrepreneurship genetic? Management Science, 54, 167-179. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1070.0761 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1070.0761...
) on the transmission of entrepreneurship between generations. However, they also found similar results for other professions, such as teachers, administrators, or salespeople. |
Lindquist et al. (2015Lindquist, M. J., Sol, J., & Van Praag, M. (2015). Why do entrepreneurial parents have entrepreneurial children? Journal of Labor Economics, 33(2), 269-296. https://doi.org/10.1086/678493 https://doi.org/10.1086/678493...
) |
Probit regression. Swedish database composed of 412,183 non-adopted people and 3,941 adopted people who lived in the country from the year 1961. |
The influence of adoptive parents was twice that of biological parents in the case of adopted people. |
Social learning |
Chlosta et al. (2012Chlosta, S., Patzelt, H., Klein, S. B., & Dormann, C. (2012). Parental role models and the decision to become self-employed: The moderating effect of personality. Small Business Economics, 38(1), 121-138. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-010-9270-y https://link.springer.com/article/10.100...
) |
Probit regression, with a sample of 461 students from eight German universities. |
Individuals who have entrepreneurial parents are more likely to engage in entrepreneurial activity, especially if the father is an entrepreneur or both parents are entrepreneurs. The influence of the mother is a little less. |
Wyrwich (2015Wyrwich, M. (2015). Entrepreneurship and the intergenerational transmission of values. Small Business Economics, 45(1), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-015-9649-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-015-9649-...
) |
OLS, logistic and probit regressions with 974 entrepreneurs, 479 of whom grew up in East Germany and 495 in West Germany. |
Individuals born to parents who grew up in unfavorable environments for entrepreneurship attributed greater value to entrepreneurial skills and a sense of overcoming challenges (mastery) as the main reason that led them to open their own business. |
Criaco et al. (2017Criaco, G., Sieger, P., Wennberg, K., Chirico, F., & Minola, T. (2017). Parents' performance in entrepreneurship as a “double-edged sword” for the intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 49(4), 841-846. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-017-9854-x https://link.springer.com/article/10.100...
) |
Factor analysis and probit regression. Data is from 33 countries, and was collected in the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students Survey - GUESSS in the years 2013 and 2014. The sample consisted of 21,895 observations. |
The results indicate that the parents’ business performance perceived by their children positively affects the probability of individuals opening businesses in the future, with the parameter being statistically significant at 1%, and ranging between 0.25 and 0.28. |
The inspirational role of parents (role models) and gender homophily |
Laspita et al. (2012Laspita, S., Breugst, N., Heblich, S., & Patzelt, H. (2012). Intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing, 27(4), 414-435. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2011.11.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2011....
) |
Probit regression. Based on the GUESSS database, the sample included 43,764 students from 261 universities in 15 countries. |
The results point to a positive and statistically significant influence on 1% of both parents and grandparents. However, when adding both variables, the grandparent effect decreases considerably. |
Hoffmann et al. (2015Hoffmann, A., Junge, M., & Malchow-Møller, N. (2015). Running in the family: Parental role models in entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 44(1), 79-104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-014-9586-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-014-9586-...
) |
Probit regression. The sample ranged from 343,571 individuals (in 1995) to 507,218 (in 2007). |
The results indicate a twice-greater probability of a male individual who has an entrepreneurial father in relation to a woman with an entrepreneurial father. The same is true for women daughters of entrepreneurs. |
Moreno-Gómez et al. (2019Moreno-Gómez, J., Gómez-Araujo, E., & Castillo-De Andreis, R. (2019). Parental role models and entrepreneurial intentions in Colombia. Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, 12(3), 413-429. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEEE-04-2019-0048 https://doi.org/10.1108/JEEE-04-2019-004...
) |
Logit model with a sample of 3,703 Colombian university students from GUESSS data. |
The influence of parental models on children’s entrepreneurial behavior is moderated by gender, that is, the father’s model is more significant for men than for women, demonstrating the influence of homophilic gender networks in the family context. |
Hopp et al. (2019Hopp, C., Minarikova, D., & Speil, A. (2019). A chip off the old block? How parent-child interactions affect the intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 11, e00130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-014-9586-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-014-9586-...
) |
Regression models, with over 2,500 parent-child pairs. |
The greater the quality of the process of social interaction between parents and children, the greater the intensity of the parental model’s effect on the transmission of entrepreneurial intention. |
Staniewski and Awruk (2021Staniewski, M. W., & Awruk, K. (2021). Parental attitudes and entrepreneurship success. Journal of Business Research, 123, 538-546. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.10.039 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.1...
) |
Multiple regression and a sample of 64 entrepreneurs running successful businesses in Poland. |
A potential determinant is the way in which parents convey information and principles to their children, as well as express their views and opinions, without judging or offering non-constructive criticism. |
Transmission factors |
Authors/Year |
Methods |
Main results |
The inspirational role of parents (role models) and gender homophily |
Moreno-Gómez et al. (2022Moreno-Gómez, J., Gómez-Araujo, E., Ferrer-Ortíz, D., & Pena-Ruiz, R. (2022). Gender perspective of parental role model influence on nascent entrepreneurs: Evidence from Colombia. European Research on Management and Business Economics, 28(1), 100156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iedeen.2021.100156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iedeen.2021.10...
) |
Logit model in a sample of 15,424 university students in Colombia. |
The parental model impacts the decision to become a nascent entrepreneur, so the effect of this impact is moderated by gender. This effect is significant only in the case of the paternal model. |
Giménez-Nadal et al. (2022Giménez-Nadal, J. I., Molina, J. A., & Velilla, J. (2022). Intergenerational correlation of self-employment in Western Europe. Economic Modelling, 108, 105741. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2021.105741 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2021.1...
) |
OLS regressions, with 64,294 respondents (parents and offspring). |
Transmission is mediated by the gender of the parental model and is especially important between parents and children. The transmission is partially explained by a country’s legal context for entrepreneurship and its entrepreneurial culture. |