Parental role models and the decision to become self-employed: The moderating effect of personality

By Simone Chlosta, Holger Patzelt, Sabine Klein, Christian Dormann. 2012

437 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper uses social learning theory to examine the influence of parental role models in entrepreneurial families. We distinguish between paternal and maternal role models and investigate how their influence on offsprings’ decision to become self-employed is moderated by personality, specifically the offsprings’ openness. We use data on 461 alumni from eight German universities. Our results show not only that the presence of a parental role model increases the likelihood that individuals become self-employed, but that the influence of role models also depends on the individual’s openness. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on entrepreneurial families, role models, and the psychology of the entrepreneur.

Subfields: Management of Technology and Innovation, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/abc2b6db75d0ac00e19d38cdef7c159c8265f2fa

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In Management of Technology and Innovation

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Knowledge context and entrepreneurial intentions among students (2012, background): “While the finding that role models as sources of tacit knowledge positively impact entrepreneurial intentions confirms and enhances the results of related research on role models and self-employment (e.g., Dunn and Holtz-Eakin 2000; Mueller 2006; Chlosta et al. 2010 ), our results concerning the ef”
Individual Determinants of Self-Employment Entry – What Do We Really Know? (2013, positive): “9 Beyond basic individual characteristics, the propensity to self-employment is also a function of family background (Hout and Rosen, 2000; Chlosta et al., 2012).”
Effects of role models and gender on students’ entrepreneurial intentions (2014, background): “…for a direct, positive association between having an entrepreneurial role model and a positive entrepreneurial career choice (BarNir et al., 2011; Chlosta et al., 2012; van Auken et al., 2006), others have failed to find such an association (e.g., Carsrud, Gaglio, and Olm, 1987; Franco et al.,…”
Parents’ performance in entrepreneurship as a “double-edged sword” for the intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurship (2017, positive): “Existing literature on comparison group salience (Samuel et al. 2013) and role models (BarNir et al. 2011; Chlosta et al. 2012; Lindquist, Sol, Van Praag and Vladasel 2016) suggests that entrepreneurial parents should be the first key candidates for social comparison.”
The Impact of the Family Background on Students’ Entrepreneurial Intentions: An Empirical Analysis (2020, methodology): “According to Chlosta et al. [13], the EI analysis done on students from eight German universities showed that there is a positive relationship between the presence of parental role models of self-employment and the self-employment of the offspring, this relationship being moderated by aspects of…”
Determinant factors of entrepreneurial intention among university students in Brazil and Portugal (2019, background): “ates positive beliefs about an entrepreneurial career (Chlosta et al. 2012).”
The role of inspiring role models in enhancing entrepreneurial intention (2019, background): “…the mechanism linking role models with entrepreneurial intentions utilized mediating or moderating variables (BarNir, Watson, & Hutchins, 2011; Chlosta, Patzelt, Klein, & Dormann, 2012), in this paper, we take a different approach by considering the joint contribution of role models combined…”
Intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurial intentions (2012, result): “Even though, as judged by R(2), this effect appears to be small (Cohen, 1988), the magnitude of parents' effect is consistent with previous research (Carr and Sequeira, 2007; Chlosta et al., 2010; Wang and Wong, 2004).”
Industry structure, entrepreneurship, and culture: An empirical analysis using historical coalfields (2016, background): “Such mechanisms also affect the family, university, neighborhood, and the regional level in general (e.g., Bosma et al., 2012; Chlosta et al., 2012; Fornahl, 2003; Kacperczyk, 2013; Minniti, 2005; Krueger et al., 2000; van Auken et al., 2006; Arenius and Minniti, 2005; Davidsson and Honig, 2003; Dun”
Drivers of Entrepreneurship and Post-Entry Performance of Newborn Firms in Developing Countries (2014, positive): “To start with, the founder of a new firm is heavily influenced by his/her own background, with particular reference to his/her previous job experience (see Evans and Leighton, 1989; Reynolds et al., 2001; Chlosta et al., 2012).”
Are the Intentions to Entrepreneurship of Men and Women Shaped Differently? The Impact of Entrepreneurial Role-Model Exposure and Entrepreneurship Education (2017, background): “Moreover, women may be more sensitive to the impact of their decisions over their parents (Chlosta et al. 2012).”
Entrepreneurship in a Regional Context: Historical Roots, Recent Developments and Future Challenges (2014, background): “Entrepreneurship research has consistently found that children and grandchildren of parents who ran a business have a significantly higher probability of being entrepreneurs themselves (e.g., CHLOSTA et al., 2012; DUNN and HOLTZ-EAKIN, 2000; LASPITA et al., 2012).”
Is entrepreneurship necessarily good? Microeconomic evidence from developed and developing countries (2013, background): “Among the personal characteristics of the founder, family background is also singled out as a key factor by those econometric estimates that explain new firm formation as an act of self-employment (Evans and Leighton, 1989; Blanchflower and Oswald, 1998; Hout and Rosen, 2000; Reynolds et al., 2001; ”