I-S4

SUMMARY

THE ATTRIBUTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF OPPORTUNITIES AND PROBLEMS DESCRIBED BY NASCENT ENTREPRENEURS IN THE PSED

William B. Gartner, University of Southern California
Kelly G. Shaver, College of William & Mary

Principal Topic

This study uses an attributional framework to explore what nascent entrepreneurs say about the opportunities and problems they faced as they undertook efforts to start businesses. Researchers using attribution theory have categorized the causes of events by using (at least) two dimensions. These are the locus of causality for the event (whether the cause is seen as internal to the self or in the external world) and the stability of the presumed cause (whether it is considered stable over time, or variable in the short-term). After showing how the attributional framework parallels research on opportunity and problem identification by scholars from the strategy identity perspective, we suggest that, because an opportunity is perceived as a positive situation where some benefit is likely and the decision maker has some control, we might find that nascent entrepreneurs who described opportunities would be more likely to make attributions that were internal and stable. Because a problem is perceived as a negative situation where a loss is likely and the decision maker has little control, we would find that individual’s who described problems would be more likely to make attributions that were external and variable.

Method

The present study used open-ended items on opportunities (A1) and problems (Q107) from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED), a national sample of individuals who were in the process of starting new businesses. The opportunity question was: “Briefly, how did the original idea for starting a business develop?” The problem question was: “What major problems have you had in starting this business?” Responses to these two questions were attributionally coded and analyzed.

Results and Implications

Nascent entrepreneurs are more likely to offer opportunities that are internal and stable, and to describe problems that are external and variable. There is a “self-serving” quality to the consensus attributional pattern, in that “self-serving” refers to internal attributions for success and external attributions for failure. These attributional patterns call into question beliefs offered by other scholars that nascent entrepreneurs perceive opportunities as external to themselves.

CONTACT: William B. Gartner, Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Bridge Hall One, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0801; (T) 213-740-0648; (F) 213-740-2976; wgartner@marshall.usc.edu