Exploring the Role of Experience in the Process of Entrepreneurial Learning

Researchers have recently showed an increasing interest in understanding entrepreneurship as an experiential learning process. In this article, we investigate the role of prior career experience for the development of entrepreneurial knowledge, i.e., knowledge that facilitates for individuals to recognize and act on opportunities as well as to organize and manage new ventures. Based on an analysis of 291 Swedish entrepreneurs we find links between various career experiences and the development of entrepreneurial knowledge. In addition we also find evidence that the entrepreneurs’ preference for exploring new possibilities vs. exploiting pre-existing knowledge are important to consider to explain this process. The study ends with a discussion of the findings, together with suggestions for future research.