I Can’t Get No Satisfaction - Necessity Entrepreneurship and Procedural Utility

We study a unique sample of 1,547 nascent entrepreneurs in Germany and analyze which factors are associated with their start-up satisfaction. Our results identify a group of nascent entrepreneurs that “cannot get satisfaction” with their start-up because they did not choose to become entrepreneurs out of free will, but out of long-term unemployment or a lack of better employment alternatives. Overall, financial success is the most important determinant of start-up satisfaction. Yet, achievement of independence and creativity is also highly important, a finding that emphasizes the economic relevance of procedural utility and non-financial incentives.