Resumen
Entrepreneurship scholars tend to discuss the merits of using innovation over imitation for the creation of new ventures. We take a step forward to focus our attention on the drivers of successful entrepreneurial firms and use Inc. 500 companies to test our framework. Findings indicate that the extent of innovation positively influences long-term sales growth and the relationship is positively moderated by prior experience and negatively moderated by family involvement. Research and practical implications are discussed.