A new avenue of exploratory research has set out to understand more fully the long running nature versus nurture debate on whether entrepreneurs are born or can be taught the appropriate skills. The high growth in entrepreneurship education over recent years in schools, further education colleges and universities would suggest the latter. However, a UK exploratory study [1], which compared the self-employment activity of 609 pairs of identical twins and 657 pairs of same sex non-identical twins, found that identical twins had a much higher incidence of self-employment activity. This seems to suggest a genetic link to entrepreneurial orientation, although the specific genes have yet to be identified.
A second exploratory study on the same theme based on evolutionary biology [2] found the level of testosterone in individuals with entrepreneurial experience to be measurably higher than those with no entrepreneurial experience, suggesting a possible link between testosterone and venture success.
Should this line of exploratory research prove fruitful, what might be the potential implications for private or institutional investors wanting to incorporate tests of this nature within their investment due diligence process? Would it be socially acceptable to deny someone access to financial resources based upon biological factors that they can’t control?
References
[1] Niclaou, N. et al., (2006). Is the tendancy to engage in self-employment genetic? http://wsomfaculty.cwru.edu/shane/ge/GE1.pdf
[2] White, R. E., et al. (2006). Entrepreneurs and Evolutionary Biology: the relationship between testosterone and new venture creation. Organisation Behaviour and Human Decision Processes
