The forgetting curve in entrepreneurship: decaying learning benefits of past entrepreneurial experience

The study presented in this paper sets out to identify the presence of a forgetting curve decaying the experiential learning benefits of serial entrepreneurs. To reach this objective the study applies a Zero-Inflated Poisson regression to a database of 518 Costa-Rican entrepreneurs with information covering the period from 2016 to 2019 that allows the analysis of the relationship between entrepreneurial experience and export market expansion through the lens of the forgetting curve. Findings confirm the presence of a forgetting curve and indicate that the slide down the forgetting curve is halted by entrepreneurial re-entry. The contribution of this study not only comes from the introduction of the concept of the forgetting curve to the study of the cognitive benefits of entrepreneurial experience, but also contributes to practice by highlighting potential advantages of encouraging the rapid re-entry into entrepreneurship of those facing an entrepreneurial exit. Rapid entrepreneurial re-entry should be encouraged to best benefit from lessons learnt from past entrepreneurial experience. The study finds that entrepreneurship is not like riding a bike, one tends to forget with time. Entrepreneurial experience is confronted by a forgetting curve. The longer an ex-entrepreneur is inactive, the more they forget of what they learnt from their past entrepreneurial experience. This means that measures promoting entrepreneurial re-entry and serial entrepreneurship can potentially loose effectiveness if the time lapse between entrepreneurial ventures has dissolved past experiential learning benefits.