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The influence of sensation seeking in the heritability of entrepreneurship
Author(s) -
Nicolaou Nicos,
Shane Scott,
Cherkas Lynn,
Spector Tim D.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
strategic entrepreneurship journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.061
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1932-443X
pISSN - 1932-4391
DOI - 10.1002/sej.37
Subject(s) - entrepreneurship , sensation seeking , variance (accounting) , trait , heritability , affect (linguistics) , psychology , sample (material) , social psychology , business , personality , biology , evolutionary biology , chemistry , accounting , communication , finance , chromatography , computer science , programming language
This study examined the influence of genetic factors on the tendency to engage in entrepreneurship. We found that, in the particular sample we examined, between 37 and 42 percent of the variance in the tendency of people to engage in entrepreneurship is accounted for by genetic factors. A substantial part of this variance was mediated by the psychological trait of sensation seeking, suggesting that genes affect the tendency of people to engage in entrepreneurship by affecting the distribution of sensation seeking across people. Copyright © 2008 Strategic Management Society.