Maria,
Your simple question concerns a very central problem in entrepreneurship research. The short answer is: there aren't any widely agreed-upon measures of "entrepreneurial success". For some early discussions of the problem of assessing entrepreneurial performance, see Brush & Vanderwerf (1992) and Cooper (1995). More recent contributions will be discussed below.
In order to decide on what success measure(s) you want to use I suggest you first decide on the level of analysis (Davidsson & Wiklund, 2001). If your interest is in the individual level, Sarasvathy (2004) reminds us that a failed venture does not mean a failed entrepreneur, so you may want to look for or develop measures of "entrepreneurial career performance" across several ventures. One place to look may be the literature on habitual entrepreneurs (e.g., Ucbasaran et al, 2006). Others may fill you in here.
If you are interested in how engagement in additional (to the initial founding of the firm) entrepreneurial activities relate to success among established firms (i.e., firm level) you are in the Corporate Entrepreneurship/Internal venturing arena. Others can fill you in there as well.
If effects on the societal level is important to your notion of success there are other contingencies to consider (see, e.g., Davidsson, 2004, Chs. 1-2).
I have argued elsewhere that the most central level of analysis for entrepreneurship research is the new emerging activity itself, i.e., the venture level. This may include both independent start-ups and ventures singled out from a corporate context.
Assuming you are interested in the venture level, the next main decision is about what stage of venture development you are interested in. As I recall it the Carton & Hofer book that Professor Hofer informed you about is a comprehensive account of measures of success for ventures that have been up and running for some years and which thus produce data on sales, profits, etc. This is a key issue for research in strategy and management in general, and for the intersection of entrepreneurship and these areas or research. A central task for entrepreneurship research is to (also) explain success in the venture creation process itself, i.e., taking something from idea to an operational new venture. On view of success is then to say that success is when that process results in an operational new venture rather than in termination/abortion/abandonment. The recent work by Schoonhoven et al (2009) is relevant to your question from that perspective. Davidsson & Gordon (forthcoming) discusses outcome measures actually used in longitudinal research on the pre-operational stage, and give some recommendations. I added some thoughts about this in my 2011 Babson (BCERC) conference paper; I will send you a copy of that separately.
Doctoral student Shaunn Mattingly at University of Louisville has recently written a term paper about dependent variables in entrepreneurship research. You may want to contact him to see whether he is willing to share it with you.
I hope you find some of this useful and wish you the best of luck in your research.
Brush, C. G., & Vanderwerf, P. A. (1992). A comparison of methods and sources for obtaining estimates of new venture performance. Journal of Business Venturing, 7(2), 157-170.
Cooper, A. C. (1995). Challenges in predicting new venture performance. In I. Bull, H. Thomas & G. Willard (Eds.), Entrepreneurship: Perspectives on Theory Building. London: Elsevier Science Ltd.
Davidsson, P. (2004). Researching Entrepreneurship. New York: Springer.
Davidsson, P., & Gordon, S. R. (2011). Panel studies of venture creation: A methods-focused review and suggestions for future research. Small Business Economics, DOI: 10.1007/s11187-011-9325-8 (Online First).
Davidsson, P., & Wiklund, J. (2001). Levels of analysis in entrepreneurship research: current practice and suggestions for the future. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 25(4, Summer), 81-99.
Sarasvathy, S. (2004). The questions we ask and the questions we care about: Reformulating some problems in entrepreneurship research. Journal of Business Venturing, 19(5), 707-720.
Schoonhoven, C. B., Burton, M. D., & Reynolds, P. D. (2009). Reconceiving the gestation window: The consequences of competing definitions of firm conception and birth. New Firm Creation in the United States, 219-237.
Ucbasaran, D., Westhead, P., & Wright, M. (2006). Habitual Entrepreneurs. Cheltenham, UK.: Elgar.
Best Regards,
Per
Per Davidsson| Professor | Director & Talbot Family Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship, Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research (ACE) | School of Management | QUT Business School | Room Z757 | Phone: +61 7 3138 2051 | Fax: +61 7 3138 5250 | Mobile: you wish... | Email: per.davidsson@qut.edu.au | www.bus.qut.edu.au/research/ace/ |CRICOS No. 00213J | Postal address: Queensland University of Technology |GP Room Z757 |2 George Street, GPO Box 2434 | Brisbane Qld 4001 |Australia
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Maria V Lugo"
To: ENTREP@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Sent: Thursday, November 3, 2011 7:10:46 AM
Subject: [ENTREP] Measures
Dear ENTREP members,
Could you please suggest some validated instruments that can be used to measure
entrepreneurial success.
Thanks,
Maria Lugo
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