Excerpt
Content
Figures and tables
The traits of entrepreneurs
References
Figures and tables
Table 1: Dimensions and explanations of the big five model of personality traits (Source: own presentation after Toegel and Barsoux, 2012).
Table 2: Environmental dimensions and their entrepreneurial impact (Source: own representation after Burns, 2001).
The traits of entrepreneurs
The traits of entrepreneurs are, supposedly because of their mere complexity, a topic that catches the interest of many researchers. So far many thoughts and theories have been postulated. This part focuses on some of them to gain an understanding about what research knows so far about the entrepreneurial mindset.
Various researchers suggest that entrepreneurs underlie a variance of personality traits. These distinct them from others and is in the view of these researchers a major driver of entrepreneurial action such as opportunity identification. For instance the latter is viewed by Shane and Venkataraman (2000) as defining for entrepreneurship as they see it as the “the discovery and exploitation of profitable opportunities” (p. 217). Furthermore Wickham (2006) states that “the good entrepreneur is constantly searching for new opportunities. In effect, this means that they are never really satisfied with the way things are at any moment in time.” (p. 99).
Table 1: Dimensions and explanations of the big five model of personality traits (Source: own presentation after Toegel and Barsoux, 2012).
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A basic way of determining one’s personality is the OCEAN or “Big Five” model of personality traits, as introduced and used by various researchers and proposed by various researchers e.g. Digman (1990). This model introduces five broad dimensions of personality (see table 1). All of them can be associated with entrepreneurship. It is arguable if entrepreneurs generally should or do perform high on all traits (consider the logic reversed for neuroticism).
The authors Burns (2001) and Kirby (2003) claim further traits of entrepreneurs:
- Curiosity, creativity & innovativeness
- Opportunism
- Intuitiveness
- Self-confidence
- Proactiveness & decisiveness
- Self-motivation
- Vision and flair
- Resistance to premature closure
- Internal locus
- Need for Achievement
- Willingness to take greater risks and uncertainties
- Need for independence / autonomy
However, as previously stated, the research findings are inconsistent as one body of scholars supports the personality approach while others reject it. One has to keep in mind that entrepreneurs are still humans and as such everyone is distinct in various ways from all others and no one can have all the attributes listed above. The said criteria may not only suit entrepreneurs but other success driven people as well.
Table 2: Environmental dimensions and their entrepreneurial impact (Source: own representation after Burns, 2001).
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It is further arguable if just the personal determination lets people become entrepreneurs, as most likely their surrounding teaches and trains them through experience to foster entrepreneurial skills.
Burns (2001) comes up with some traits that are environmentally driven and foster entrepreneurial skills (see table 2).
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