Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Consider the long hours, lack of sleep, high risk, high stress and often slow financial return. More than four decades’ of research has sought to answer why people become entrepreneurs. Until now, answers have been vague and uncertain, and much of the literature has assumed that the tendency to engage in entrepreneurial activity is explained by learned individual differences or situational factors. However, recent research suggests that entrepreneurial qualities are heritable. Do a person’s genes determine his or her ability as an entrepreneur?

Although entrepreneurs are vital to the economy, experts disagree on precisely what drives people to become entrepreneurs, or which characteristics are the most critical. “Until now, it has been assumed that the tendency to engage in entrepreneurial activity is explained by learned individual difference or factors relating to a person’s situation,” according to Tim Spector, director of the Twin Research Unit at King’s College in London.

However, research from Spector and others suggest that entrepreneurial qualities are heritable, positing that the entrepreneurial knack is in the genes.

In a recent collaborative study between Spector and researchers at the Department of Public and Business Administration at the University of Cyprus and Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management in Cleveland, researchers compared the entrepreneurial activity of 870 pairs of identical twins — who share 100 percent of their genes — and 857 pairs of same-sex fraternal twins — who share 50 percent — to see how much of entrepreneurial behavior is genetic and how much is environmental.

The researchers concluded that not only are entrepreneurs about 40 percent born and 60 percent made, but also that nearly half (48 percent) of an individual’s propensity to become self-employed could be due to genetic factors.

“Whether entrepreneurship is measured as self-employment, starting companies, owning one’s own business or being involved in the firm start-up process, recent research shows that the tendency to be an entrepreneur is partially genetic, with heritabilities from 37 percent to 48 percent, depending on the measure,” the research team states.

“Researchers tested a number of indications of entrepreneurship including running or starting a business, the number of businesses a person had started, and the length of time they were self-employed, but for all of these factors there was the same strong genetic component,” Inc.com explains.

The authors of the King’s College/University of Cyprus/Case Western Reserve study propose that there are several ways that genetic factors may influence people’s tendency to become entrepreneurs. This includes a predisposition to develop traits such as being sociable and extroverted, which in turn can facilitate skills such as salesmanship, which is crucial to entrepreneurial success.

Fortune Magazine attacks the “born or made” question from another angle: Can entrepreneurship be taught? More to the point, can it be learned?

BNET recently made the case for entrepreneurship being taught: “[I]t’s not about personality traits, risk tolerance or even your brilliant business plan. It’s about how well you can navigate uncertainty — something that B-schools definitely can and do teach.”

The number of undergraduate majors, minors and certificates offered in entrepreneurship has risen from 104 in 1975 to more than 500 in 2006, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In 2010, Fortune offered this estimate: “More than two-thirds of U.S. colleges and universities — well over 2,000, up from 200 in the 1970s — are teaching [entrepreneurship].”

However, Rhonda Abrams, CEO of business-plan consultancy The Planning Shop and author of The Successful Business Plan: Secrets and Strategies, told Inc.com last year, “The majority of people [who start businesses] don’t have any kind of background in finance, or accounting or budgeting.”

In a 2009 study from Ace Hardware, only seven percent of 500 small-business owners surveyed thought it was important to be “educated in business or finance” (although 79 percent said they had at least some college education).

If entrepreneurship — or at least part of the entrepreneurial skill set — is able to be learned, another question must be asked: How well are schools teaching entrepreneurship?

While the number of colleges and universities with entrepreneurship programs has increased tenfold in the last three decades, a study published by the Kauffman Foundation earlier this year found that the explosion has resulted in “no appreciable impact on entrepreneurial activity in the United States.”

“A lot of times business schools think that we can teach everyone to become entrepreneurs or leaders; all we have to do is get the incentives and training right. In reality, efforts to educate people, or to change the organizations in which people work, can only have so much effect,” according to Scott Shane, a professor of entrepreneurial studies at the Weatherhead School of Management and co-director of the aforementioned study.

“Some portion of what leads a person to become a leader, or start a business [...] is literally inborn,” Shane says.

Are entrepreneurs born or made? Perhaps the answer lies in a seminal study published 25 years ago. In a 1985 Harvard Business Review report, co-authors Howard Stevenson and David Gumpert wrote that entrepreneurship is not “an all-or-none trait that some people or organizations possess and others don’t,” but rather “a range of behavior.”

So, what are the qualities included in that range of behavior?

The following traits ranked high on Ace Hardware respondents’ list of keys to entrepreneurial success (in decreasing order): industriousness, motivation, perseverance, intelligence, good instincts and passion.

Let us know what you think: Can people learn to be successful entrepreneurs? If so, is it like learning any other skill in B-school, or does it come from somewhere else?

Resources

Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?
Twin Research Unit at St Thomas’ Hospital, June 5, 2006

Is the Tendency to Engage in Entrepreneurship Genetic?
by Nicos Nicolaou, Scott Shane, Lynn Cherkas, Janice Hunkin and Tim Spector
Management Science, Vol. 54 No. 1 (January 2008)

Entrepreneurship and Genetic Make-Up
by Scott Shane
Weatherhead School of Management

Opportunity Recognition and the Tendency to Be an Entrepreneur: A Bivariate Genetics Perspective
by Nicos Nicolaou, Scott Shane, Lynn Cherkas and Tim Spector
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Sept. 25, 2009

Do Openness to Experience and Recognizing Opportunities Have the Same Genetic Source?
by Scott Shane, Nicos Nicolaou, Lynn Cherkas and Tim Spector
Human Resource Management, March/April 2010

Is Entrepreneurship in Your Genes?
by Josh Spiro
Inc.com, Oct. 20, 2009

Can You Learn to Be an Entrepreneur?
by David Whitford
Fortune, March 11, 2010

Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?
by Lindsay Blakely
BNET, May 19, 2010

Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?
by Ian Mount
Fortune Small Business, Dec. 9, 2009

The Traits of an Entrepreneur
by Josh Spiro
Inc.com, Aug. 20, 2009

Number of New Companies Created Annually Remains Remarkably Constant Across Time…
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Jan. 12, 2010

The Heart of Entrepreneurship
by Howard H. Stevenson and David E. Gumpert
Harvard Business Review, March/April 1985