A large body of recent research seeks to understand organizational found ing and the performance of emerging businesses. Although much of this research has focused on the characteristics of the business founder, there
is only mixed support for relationships between founders' characteristics
and venture performance (Begley and Boyd 1987; Gartner 1988; Low and
MacMillan 1988; Sexton and Bowman 1984). This study is based on re- search that identifies the entrepreneurial, managerial, and technicaljunctionalfunctions as three roles that founders must competently enact in order to be successful (Hofer and Sandberg 1987; Mintzberg and Waters 1982; Pavett and Lau 1983; Schein 1987). Effective performance in the entrepreneurial role requires the founder to have the ability to recognize business opportunities and the drive to see firm creation through to fruition (Hofer and Sandberg 1987; Timmons et al. 1987). Effective execution of the managerial role requires conceptual, interpersonal, and political competence (Pavett and Lau
1983 ). To be competent in the technical junctional role, founders must be able to use the tools or
procedures required in their specialized field (Pavett and Lau 1983).
To measure the competencies necessary for effectiveness in the entrepreneurial, managerial, and technical-functional roles, we developed a questionnaire to allow founders to provide self-eval uations of their competencies. The results provide strong evidence for the reliability of measurement and the validity of the constructs.
The relationships revealed in this study suggest some preliminary recommendations for potential entrepreneurs. career counselors, and educators. The number of businesses previously initiated and the years spent as an owner manager do not appear to be strongly related to the performance of the venture; however, the most successful entrepreneurs are strongly convinced of their al 'lity to recognize business opportunity. They believe that they have the drive to see the venture through to fruition and report that they subjugate outside interests to the demands of their businesses. Thus, although self assessed proficiency in the entrepreneurial function does not appear to be contingent on the length of