Perspiration and inspiration: Grit and innovativeness as antecedents of entrepreneurial success

Venture success has been related to numerous characteristics of entrepreneurs including their enduring personality traits. Separately, recent scholarship has elucidated trait “Grit” comprising two dimensions, “Consistency of Interests” (or “Passion”) and “Perseverance of Effort”, and validated Grit as a predictor of success in areas such as education, military training, and income. We report a study with a sample of Austrian entrepreneurs relating Grit as well as firm-level Innovativeness to entrepreneurial success. We show that both Grit and Innovativeness predict success; Grit affects success directly and in effects that are mediated by Innovativeness.