This study combined secondary public data and a survey of founders of 70 shortline railroads to examine correlates of shortline railroad performance. Among founder characteristics, general education level of the founder was positively related to goal attainment, while the number of business courses exhibited a curvilinear relationship. Goal attainment was positively related to three strategy/industry structure variables: the percentage of traffic originated locally, the size of the railroad, and the degree to which the firm focused on customer satisfaction. Supplementary analyses on the determinants of firm growth revealed some overlap with and some differences from these results. In general, the study indicates that models of new venture performance should include a comprehensive set of variables and consider the impact of alternative measures of performance.
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