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Abstract
Understanding what motivates entrepreneurs to start and sustain their ventures has been a critical factor in understanding the complete entrepreneurial process. Since goal-directed behavior is a vital element in the research on entrepreneurial motivation, this study attempted to investigate the existence of a set of goals which motivate entrepreneurs to sustain their business development efforts. To accomplish this effort, questionnaire de
veloped from the literature was utilized to identify the existence of 16 possible goals. A four-factor stucture of goal statements was identified on the basis of the responses form 234 entrepreneurs. Factors included Extrinsic Rewards, Independence/Autonomy, Intrinsic Rewards, and Family Security. The implications of the existence of these factors as motivators for sustained ownership are discussed.
Many entrepreneurs continue to pursue independent employment throughout their careers in spite of adverse events or lack of financial success. In fact, entrepreneurship becomes their career in a manner similar to an individual who climbs the ladder of a Fortune 500 firm. Bird's (19S9) work on entrepreneurial behavior discussed the longterm, career-oriented nature of entrepreneurship commonly neglected in del`ining the term. Bird defined an entrepreneurial career as "the process of deciding to begin and to continue operating as an entrepreneur" (p. 173).
The concepts of motivation, goaldirected behavior, and perception of successful outcomes are all important elements in the entrepreneurial process. Understanding entrepreneurial motiva
tion is critical to understanding the complete entrepreneurial process. Herron and Sapienza (1992) stated that "because motivation plays an important part in the creation of new organizations, theories of organization creation that fail to address this notion are incomplete" (p. 49). While Herron and Sapienza concentrated on the interactive nature of variables leading up to the launch of a venture, Herron and Robinson (1993) extended this model into a more complete description of the venture performance process.
In developing a model of entrepreneurial motivation, Naffziger, Hornsby, and Kuratko (1994) contended that a more complete view of entrepreneurship should include the entirety of the entrepreneurial experience--that is, behaviors necessary to the operation of the firm and its performance, as well as the psychological/non-psychological outcomes resulting from firm ownership. Thus they integrated existing research and theory into a model which incorporated both the decision to create a new venture and the motivation to...