2022 journal article

The relationship of self-efficacy with entrepreneurial success: A meta-analytic replication and extension

Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 18, e00342.

By: A. Glosenberg*, D. Phillips, J. Schaefer, J. Pollack*, B. Kirkman, J. McChesney, S. Noble, M. Ward, L. Foster

co-author countries: United States of America 🇺🇸
Source: Crossref
Added: February 18, 2023

The replication of meta-analyses is important for developing stable and accurate insights into entrepreneurship. To that end, we replicate key aspects of the meta-analysis conducted by Miao et al. (2017) on the relationships between entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and financial measures of firm performance and extend their meta-analysis by considering generalized forms of self-efficacy and non-financial measures of entrepreneurial success. We expand the number of included samples from 27 in Miao et al. (2017) to 159. Overall, we find that the relationship between self-efficacy and success is small (ρ = 0.24) using guidelines from Cohen (1988); however, the relationship between ESE and at least partially financial measures of success was moderate, but larger in size (ρ = 0.44 vs. ρ = 0.31), than that estimated by Miao et al. (2017). We find that effect sizes vary widely depending on the type of success variable—with small to practically insignificant relations between self-efficacy and firm size as measured by the number of employees. In addition, we find stronger relations between ESE and success than generalized self-efficacy. Altogether we find that without properly accounting for the influence of the type of success variable, researchers might draw incorrect conclusions regarding the role of self-efficacy in entrepreneurial dynamics. We discuss the methodological and theoretical implications of our findings. • Self-efficacy is meaningfully related to some forms of entrepreneurial success. • Entrepreneurial vs. generalized self-efficacy is more strongly related to success. • Self-efficacy is not always meaningfully related to firm size.