An everlasting battle between theoretical knowledge and practical skills? The joint impact of education and professional experience on entrepreneurial success

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 en-trepreneur’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 en-trepreneurship by addressing the complementarity effect between education and professional experience.