An Everlasting Battle between Theoretical Knowledge and Practical Skills? The Joint Impact of Education and Professional Experience on Entrepreneurial Success
An Everlasting Battle between Theoretical Knowledge and Practical Skills? The Joint Impact of Education and Professional Experience on Entrepreneurial Success

Summary/Abstract: Objective: The objective of the article is to examine the complementarity between education and professional experience and the complementarity’s impact on the probability of entrepreneurial success. Research Design & Methods: To test the complementarity, we utilise a sample of both successful entrepreneurs and salary workers with previous entrepreneurial experience and a logit model with a dependent variable indicating the respondent’s membership in one of these two groups. Secondly, we use net income as a proxy of entrepreneurial success and run ordered logit regressions on a sample of successful entrepreneurs. Findings: Our study confirms the existence of complementarity between education and breadth of professional experience and its impact on the probability of an entrepreneur’s success. Implications & Recommendations: Our findings are informative for those planning or pursuing an entrepreneurial career, but they are also relevant for entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship research. Contribution & Value Added: We add to the knowledge of entrepreneurial success factors and the relationships among them. We particularise Lazear’s theory of entrepreneurship by addressing the complementarity effect between education and professional experience.

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