The impact of experience on the behavior and performance of self-employed and entrepreneurs. Three empirical studies

Entrepreneurs can be studied from many angles. We will study the phenomenon of entrepreneurship from the management discipline. We aimed to gain more insight into the relationship between experience and entrepreneurial performance. Thus far, several scholars have highlighted the importance of learning when studying entrepreneurship (e.g. Harrison & Leitch, 2005). As Minniti and Bygrave (2001:7) put it, “entrepreneurship is a process of learning, and a theory of entrepreneurship requires a theory of learning”. The theory of learning they propose is that entrepreneurs learn from their experiences. In order to gain more insight in the relationship between experience and performance, we have focused on several moderators in the experience-performance relationship. We considered the possible different effects of the type of experience when studying the experience-performance relationship, i.e. industry experience, entrepreneurial experience and experience diversity. Furthermore, we analyzed conditional indirect effects on the experience-financial constraints relationship and experience-performance relationship. For example, we analyze how experience is related to a particular type set of skills important in obtaining funding and how this in turn is associated with experienced financial constraints.