New venture growthinfluencing factors

Resumo

This study investigates the effects of the following factors on venture growth. Firstly, the human capital of the entrepreneur (education, experience, the locus of internal control, the need for achievement and resilience). Secondly, the characteristics of the firm with reference to the initial financial resources, number of partners, frequency and breadth of external communication and finally, factors relevant to the conception and development of the firm. In order to achieve our objective we have used a structural equation modelling technique (Partial Least Squares - PLS-) to estimate a path model with latent variables. Although the all latent variables have a positive impact on venture growth, our findings show clearly that the size of the company is an important moderating factor when explaining venture growth. The variable in which this effect is most evident is that of education. If we do not take the size of the company into consideration, the variables which help to explain growth performance are, in the following order of importance, experience; a favourable perception of the business environment and the resilience of the entrepreneur.