UNLOCKING POTENTIAL: THE EFFECT OF MENTORING ENTREPRENEURS ON NEW VENTURE PERFORMANCE

Using longitudinal data from Growing America Through Entrepreneurship (GATE), I examine whether mentors improve nascent entrepreneurs’ new venture survival and growth. To perform the analysis, I develop a multi-level regression model with mentoring as the key independent variable and human capital as the moderator. The findings provide empirical evidence that having a mentor helps nascent entrepreneurs grow and improve their businesses’ chances of survival. Furthermore, mentorship helps new venture growth and survival for some entrepreneurs more than others. For survival, mentorship is more helpful for those without business education. For new venture growth, I find that mentorship helps those with no prior managerial experience. These results highlight the importance of mentoring for nascent entrepreneurs and the boundary conditions through which mentoring is most beneficial.