Entrepreneurs tend to be risk tolerant but is higher risk tolerance always better? In a sample of about 2100 small businesses, we find an inverted U-shaped relation between risk tolerance and profitability. This relationship holds in a simple bilateral regression, and even after controlling for a large set of individual and business characteristics. Apparently, one major transmission goes from risk tolerance via investments to profits. This is quite robust as it applies for both past and planned investments. Considering business survival, we show, first, that less profitable businesses leave the market while moderately risk tolerant entrepreneurs survive more often. Second, the high risk-low profit part of the U-shaped relation seems to disappear among businesses being 4 years and older, indicating that such inferior risk-profit combinations disappear over time. These findings are important for the concept of business readiness trainings as the motivation (and ability) to take risks should potentially be accompanied by some warning that taking too much risk can be detrimental to long-term business success.

企业家往往具有风险承受能力，但风险承受能力是否越高越好？在大约 2100 家小型企业的样本中，我们发现风险承受能力和盈利能力之间存在倒 U 形关系。即使在控制了大量个人和企业特征之后，这种关系在简单的双边回归中也成立。显然，一个主要的传导是从投资的风险承受能力到利润。这是相当稳健的，因为它适用于过去和计划的投资。考虑到企业的生存，我们首先表明，利润较低的企业离开市场，而风险承受能力中等的企业家则更多地生存下来。其次，U 形关系中的高风险-低利润部分似乎在 4 年及以上的企业中消失，表明这种较差的风险-利润组合随着时间的推移而消失。这些发现对于商业准备培训的概念很重要，因为承担风险的动机（和能力）应该伴随着一些警告，即承担过多的风险可能不利于长期的商业成功。