Title: Entrepreneurship, risk perception and firm performance

Authors: Martijn Adriaan Boermans; Daan Willebrands

Addresses: Statistics Department, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), P.O. Box 98, Westeinde 1, NL-1000 AB Amsterdam, The Netherlands; School of Economics, Utrecht University, Adam Smith Hall, International Campus Utrecht, Kriekenpitplein 21-22, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands ' Atradius Credit Insurance N.V., P.O. Box 8982, David Ricardostraat 1, 1006 JD, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Abstract: Risk attitudes of entrepreneurs are well-established drivers of business performance. Most empirical studies in this field only take into account risk propensity, leaving out the complementary concept of risk perception. Using data on 611 entrepreneurs from Tanzania, we show that risk perception is positively associated with business performance. In addition, we classify the entrepreneurs in four different groups based on their risk profile. The results show that the worst performing entrepreneurs are those with low risk perception and high risk propensity.

Keywords: risk attitude; risk perception; risk propensity; entrepreneurship; business performance; Africa.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2017.085426

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2017 Vol.31 No.4, pp.557 - 569

Received: 13 Jul 2015
Accepted: 25 Jan 2016
Published online: 26 Jul 2017 *

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