Novice vs habitual entrepreneurship : differences in motivations, actions and expectations

This research examines habitual entrepreneurship as undertaken by those currently creating a new firm and those who recently had. The suggestion is that habitual entrepreneurs have different motivations for firm creation, take different actions during the process, and have different expectations for outcomes, as compared to novices. Data drawn from a random sample of over 1100, nascent and new firms, in part, support this view. It was found that habitual entrepreneurs are motivated to grow their firm as large as possible, actively define market opportunities during firm gestation, and have circumspect expectations as to the difficulty of business survival.