TIMS: Acta (Jan 2019)
Personality traits of a successful enterpreneur
Abstract
A rapid development of the entrepreneurial business in recent years has brought the entrepreneur's personality back into focus. The revival of the old debate regarding the contribution of personal factors to successful business led to the formation of two research streams to profile (1) the traits that are more likely to result in an "entrepreneurial orientation" and (2) those responsible for a successful business. In this paper, we will give a brief overview of meta-analytic studies to date that comprehensively illustrate the complex structure of the so-called entrepreneurial personality. To describe a multidimensional "entrepreneurial orientation", over the last decade researchers have primarily relied on a Five-factor model of personality. The results of numerous studies are only consistent concerning an openness to experiences as a dimension of personality on which entrepreneurs achieve higher scores than non-entrepreneurial occupations. One of the most frequent critics of the Five-factor model is its over-generality, which does not allow predictability of entrepreneurial behavior in specific situations. That is the reason why researchers have recently been more inclined to take a multidimensional approach that includes self-efficacy, innovation, an internal locus of control and openness to risk as traits that differentiate an entrepreneurial personality from other professions. Interpretation of the findings on an entrepreneur's personality should also include differences in the definition of an entrepreneurial business, size of the enterprise, length of time in business, as well as the characteristics of the enterprise itself. T
