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Success and Failure of Innovative Company Start-ups: Developmental Pathways of Entrepreneurs
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The research project focuses on innovative company start-ups as an important vehicle for commercialising new technological knowledge. The main research question we attempt to answer refers to the conditions and determinants for success and failure of newly founded companies. Overall, we want to distinguish individual characteristics of company founders, such as motivation, risk attitude, skills etc. as well as technological and economic determinants, such as technological opportunities, resource availability, competitive situation, etc. Consequently we pursue an interdisciplinary approach involving psychology and economics. A representative sample of successful/unsuccessful innovative entrepreneurs (company start-up in 1990-2006 in Thuringia) and potential founders located at the universities of Thuringia will be interviewed via questionnaire in a cross-sectional design. The questionnaire will be based on both economic items and psychological items. Furthermore, the life history calendar, an instrument for valid retrospective data collection, will be applied.
The project is funded by the Ministry of the Federal State of Thuringia and takes place in cooperation with the Department of Microeconomics (Professor Uwe Cantner) at the University of Jena and the University of Applied Science Jena (Professor Gabriele Beibst). |
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Principal investigators: R. K. Silbereisen & E. Schmitt-Rodermund & in collaboration with E. Schröder & M. Obschonka |