The relationship of self-efficacy with entrepreneurial success: A meta-analytic replication and extension

Abstract

The replication of meta-analyses is important for developing stable and accurate insights into entrepreneurship. To that end, we replicate key aspects of the meta-analysis conducted by Miao et al. (2017) on the relationships between entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and financial measures of firm performance and extend their meta-analysis by considering generalized forms of self-efficacy and non-financial measures of entrepreneurial success. We expand the number of included samples from 27 in Miao et al. (2017) to 159. Overall, we find that the relationship between self-efficacy and success is small (ρ = 0.24) using guidelines from Cohen (1988); however, the relationship between ESE and at least partially financial measures of success was moderate, but larger in size (ρ = 0.44 vs. ρ = 0.31), than that estimated by Miao et al. (2017). We find that effect sizes vary widely depending on the type of success variable—with small to practically insignificant relations between self-efficacy and firm size as measured by the number of employees. In addition, we find stronger relations between ESE and success than generalized self-efficacy. Altogether we find that without properly accounting for the influence of the type of success variable, researchers might draw incorrect conclusions regarding the role of self-efficacy in entrepreneurial dynamics. We discuss the methodological and theoretical implications of our findings.