The Determinants of the Growth Expectations of Turkish Entrepreneurs in the Way up the Entrepreneural Ladder Using Ordinal Logistic Model (OLM)

Given the increasing importance of entrepreneurship in job creation, innovation and economic growth, we try to inquire into the question of why some of the entrepreneurs and not the others expect a rapid development of their ventures. This study uses the Ordinal Logistic Model (OLM) to analyze the determinants of the growth expectations of Turkish nascent, baby and established entrepreneurs, expressed in terms of new jobs to be created within their firms. The OLM procedure allows to compute a probability distribution of growth expectations in four categories given the demographic, perceptual characteristics of these entrepreneurs, and the distinctive traits of their businesses. The data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for the years 2006-2008 for Turkey were employed. The growth expectations of Turkish business owners are found to decrease as they mature in the entrepreneurial course. Overall, while both demographic and perceptual characteristics seem to affect firm growth expectations of nascent Turkish entrepreneurs, only demographic variables appear to influence similar expectations of baby Turkish business owners. For established Turkish entrepreneurs, firm’s size is predominantly important.