Entrepreneurs Are Not Risk Seekers, Study Says

Are most entrepreneurs reckless risk seekers hungry to bet their life savings on an untested venture? Are they driven by the same motivations that spur high-stakes gamblers to place million-dollar bets on the roulette wheel? Quite the contrary, says a new paper by John Morgan, a professor of entrepreneurship studies at U.C. Berkeley’s Haas business school. Instead, he contends, most entrepreneurs are motivated by what he calls “loss aversion.” That means the fear of losing the equivalent o...