Predicting entrepreneurial development based on individual and business-related characteristics is a key objective of entrepreneurship research. In this context, we investigate whether the motives of becoming an entrepreneur influence the subsequent entrepreneurial development. In our analysis, we examine a broad range of business outcomes including survival and income, as well as job creation, and expansion and innovation activities for up to 40 months after business formation. Using the self-determination theory as conceptual background, we aggregate the start-up motives into a continuous motivational index. We show – based on a unique dataset of German start-ups from unemployment and non-unemployment – that the later business performance is better, the higher they score on this index. Effects are particularly strong for growth-oriented outcomes like innovation and expansion activities. In a next step, we examine three underlying motivational categories that we term opportunity, career ambition, and necessity. We show that individuals driven by opportunity motives perform better in terms of innovation and business expansion activities, while career ambition is positively associated with survival, income, and the probability of hiring employees. All effects are robust to the inclusion of a large battery of covariates that are proven to be important determinants of entrepreneurial performance.

基于个人和企业相关特征预测创业发展是创业研究的一个关键目标。在此背景下，我们调查成为企业家的动机是否影响随后的创业发展。在我们的分析中，我们检查了广泛的业务成果，包括生存和收入，以及创造就业机会，以及业务形成后长达 40 个月的扩张和创新活动。以自我决定理论为概念背景，我们将创业动机聚合成一个连续的动机指数. 我们根据一个独特的德国初创企业失业和非失业数据集表明，越晚的业务表现越好，他们在该指数上的得分就越高。对于创新和扩张活动等以增长为导向的成果，影响尤为强烈。在下一步中，我们将研究三个潜在的动机类别，我们称之为机会、职业抱负和必要性。我们表明，受机会动机驱动的个人在创新和业务扩展活动方面表现更好，而职业抱负与生存、收入和雇用员工的可能性呈正相关。所有效果对于包含大量协变量都是稳健的，这些协变量被证明是创业绩效的重要决定因素。