AN APPRAISAL OF SUCCESS CRITERIA FOR ENTERPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

In particular psychological but also economic research has analyzed in detail which personality

characteristics are fundamental for entrepreneurial success. The following traits have been defined as useful in

explaining the past success and in predicting the future development of a newly founded business: motivational

traits, such as `need for achievement', `internal locus of control', and `need for autonomy', cognitive skills such

as `problem-solving orientation', `tolerance of ambiguity', `creativity' and `risk-taking propensity', affective

personality traits, such as `stress resistance', `emotional stability', and `level of arousal', and social skills, such as

`interpersonal reactivity' and `assertiveness' (Caliendo and Kritikos, 2007). Empirical research aiming to

underpin the theoretical propositions ex-post has taken two directions: it has compared the parameter values of

these variables, gathered with the help of psychologically validated questionnaires, either between entrepreneurs

and employees, or between successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs.

Leadership School of Entrepreneurship

The leadership school of entrepreneurship sees an entrepreneur as someone who relies on those he believes can

help him achieve his purposes and objectives. This school proposes that a successful entrepreneur must be a

'people manager', an effective leader, a mentor who motivates, directs and leads others to accomplish set tasks.

Kao (1989) postulates that the entrepreneur must be a leader, able to define a vision of what is possible, and

attract people to rally around that vision and transform it into reality. The two major elements in this approach

are: getting the task accomplished and responding to the needs of those involved in task accomplishment

Human Capital Model

Human capital theories relate to entrepreneurial success in a similar way as personality structure: sufficient

knowledge and working experience in the relevant fields enable business founders to choose more efficient

approaches, for instance in organizing production processes, creating financial strategies, or analyzing markets

for the new product. The human capital of the entrepreneur is the second part of the character-based approach

after the entrepreneurial personality.

Human capital theory is concerned with knowledge and experiences of small-scale business owners.

The general assumption is that the human capital of the founder improves small firm chances to survive

(Bruederl, Preisendoerfer and Ziegler, 1992). Human capital acts as a resource. Human capital makes the

founder more efficient in organizing processes or in attracting customers and investors. Different studies used

variousoperationalizations of human capital. Bruederl et al. (1992) distinguished between general human capital

-years of schooling and years of work experience- and specific human capital- industry specific experience, self

employment experience, leadership experience, and self-employed father and in general, trend indicated a small

positive relationship between human capital and success.