The Long-Term Impact of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Entrepreneurial Orientation on Venture Performance

We collected multi-wave survey data to assess the lagged effects of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on firm performance over a five-year period. The results of our study indicate that ESE and EO are both positively associated with firm performance but in different, and interesting, ways. Entrepreneurially self-efficacious founder/managers may help improve the performance of very young firms but such benefits dissipate over time. An EO, on the other hand, does not appear to be particularly beneficial to very young firms. However, our results suggest an EO may play an increasingly valuable role as new firms mature.