The Contribution of Behavioral Genetics to Entrepreneurship Research: An Evolutionary Perspective

Genetic influences on behavioral and psychological traits are ubiquitous and well established. In particular, they have been shown to affect several measures of entrepreneurial activity. We assess the prospects and contributions of this incipient literature and sharpen the debate by arguing that, in order to explain the heritability of traits involving beliefs, intentions, and, above all, interactions with other individuals, it is advisable to take models of gene-culture evolution into account. Applying this framework, we explain why entrepreneurial behaviors are bound to be frequency-dependent and exhibit relatively high phenotypic plasticity. As a result, we conclude that these traits, even if they are heritable, will be strongly subject to the contingency of environmental forces, thereby exploring methodological implications for entrepreneurship research.