The contribution of business experience and knowledge to successful entrepreneurship

The objective of this article is to discover the relationships between selected organizational predictors and entrepreneurial success through examination of a sample of 294 companies. The study uses two questionnaires: Multidimensional Business Data Sheet, gathering information on the entrepreneur and the company, and Successful Entrepreneurship Scale, measuring entrepreneurial success. The examination involves statistical analysis with a parametric Student's t-test and a non-parametric U Mann-Whitney test. The author employs stepwise regression to verify the predictive value of variables. The findings show that entrepreneurs with managerial experience, an effective entrepreneur in the family, unique knowledge, and whose employees have unique knowledge obtain higher mean scores in the general indicator of entrepreneurial success. Furthermore, entrepreneurs whose employees have unique knowledge achieve greater entrepreneurial success. The results may help both people intending to start a business and organizations granting funds to companies as they might facilitate estimation of one's chances for success.