Nascent entrepreneurs’ personality attributes and the international dimension of new ventures

Abstract

In the present paper, we examine the international scale of new venture’s operations. We argue that several dimensions reflecting entrepreneurial orientation (proactiveness, risk taking and innovativeness) are important determinants of nascent entrepreneur’s entry into foreign markets. We apply logistic regression techniques to a sample of nascent entrepreneurs for the United States and the European Union obtained from the GEM dataset for the period 2001–2008. Our results show that the nascent entrepreneur’s propensity to export is positively associated with both their proactiveness and their new venture’s innovativeness. Our analysis, therefore, implies that when making decisions on export, nascent entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial orientation affect their willingness to operate beyond national boundaries.