What Makes an Entrepreneur — Daddy’s Money?

Marginal Revolution has a post on a paper that suggests that Brazilian entrepreneurs. The authors of this paper report the following:

We find that family characteristics have the strongest influence on becoming an entrepreneur. In contrast, success as an entrepreneur is primarily determined by the individual’s smartness and higher education in the family. Entrepreneurs are not more self-confident than non-entrepreneurs; and overconfidence is bad for business success.

The paper also reports that social networks help determine who becomes an entrepreneur, but not how much success they will enjoy once they start their ventures.
These findings are certainly consistent with findings in other places around the globe. Culture and family background point you toward a career as an entrepreneur, but your wits and education are what lead to success.
Culture plays a major role in fostering entrepreneurship. Culture begins with the family and then extends to the community. This study suggests that family and social relationships are the strongest predictor for entrepreneurial activity. Note the lack of any findings on the importance comprehensive government planning in this paper!
Of course, there are those out there who seem to interpret these findings as evidence that entrepreneurship is only an avenue for the economic elites. The blog Stumbling and Mumbling sees it this way).:

In other words, what makes an entrepreneur is access to capital – the sort of access that comes from having a wealthy background.

We all know where this type of perspective often takes us.
It is a long stretch to conclude that since entrepreneurs often come from successful parents, it must be the capital they give to them that makes their children more likely to become entrepreneurs.
Access to capital does not correlate very highly with entrepreneurial outcomes. That is, more money at start-up does not predict more entrepreneurial success. If that were true I would suspect that venture captialists and angels would have much higher than the typcial 10% success rates that they often see in their rather sizable investments.
It is more likely that these economically successful parents have instilled ethics and values in their children that reinforce the importance of success, self-reliance, and education.
(Thanks to Nathan Ratcliff for pointing me toward this discussion).