Personality trait differences across types of entrepreneurs: a systematic literature review

Abstract

The personality traits that define entrepreneurs have been of significant interest to academic research for several decades. However, previous studies have used vastly different definitions of the term “entrepreneur”, meaning their subjects have ranged from rural farmers to tech-industry start-up founders. Consequently, most research has investigated disparate sub-types of entrepreneurs, which may not allow for inferences to be made regarding the general entrepreneurial population. Despite this, studies have frequently extrapolated results from narrow sub-types to entrepreneurs in general. This variation in entrepreneur samples reduces the comparability of empirical studies and calls into question the reviews that pool results without systematic differentiation between sub-types. The present study offers a novel account by differentiating between the definitions of “entrepreneur” used in studies on entrepreneurs’ personality traits. We conduct a systematic literature review across 95 studies from 1985 to 2020. We uncover three main themes across the previous studies. First, previous research applied a wide range of definitions of the term “entrepreneur”. Second, we identify several inconsistent findings across studies, which may at least partially be due to the use of heterogeneous entrepreneur samples. Third, the few studies that distinguished between various types of entrepreneurs revealed differences between them. Our systematic differentiation between entrepreneur sub-types and our research integration offer a novel perspective that has, to date, been widely neglected in academic research. Future research should use clearly defined entrepreneurial samples and conduct more systematic investigations into the differences between entrepreneur sub-types.

Hatching start-ups for sustainable growth: a bibliometric review on business incubators

“…can be evaluated and discussed. In particular, the recent literature review on personality traits of entrepreneurs calls future scholars to investigate this phenomena not as a stand-alone construct, but within environmental context (Salmony and Kanbach 2021) that incubators can offer. An interesting research question would be how the incubator´s environment influences personal motivations and attitudes of entrepreneurs.…”

Factors Affecting Entrepreneurial Intention

“…On the other hand, the cognitive model highlights a difference between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs in the way they process information. According to this theory, people who intend to start businesses are distinguished from those who will not do so mainly by their cognitive mechanisms (Baron, 2004;Salmony & Kanbach, 2021;Sa nchez, 2012). However, personality traits can still be good predictors of people's cognitive process (Krueger & Brazeal, 1994;Simon & Houghton, 2002).…”

“…However, personality traits can still be good predictors of people's cognitive process (Krueger & Brazeal, 1994;Simon & Houghton, 2002). Risk propensity, a well-known personality trait, has been identified as a variable that precedes the entrepreneurial decision-making processes (Bag & Omrane, 2021;Kadir, Salim & Kamarudin, 2012;Salmony & Kanbach, 2021;Tumasjan, Welpe & Spo rrle, 2013;Yan, 2010). Likewise, there is sound evidence of a positive relationship between risk propensity and entrepreneurial intention in the samples of adolescents (Popescu et al, 2016;Sa nchez, 2013;Volery et al, 2013).…”

“…Two of them observe the idea of locus of control, a personal trait related to the notion of managing one's destiny, influencing a person's idea of self-efficacy (Spector, 1982). Six variables observe the respondents' perception of the skills that are recognized as key to success in an entrepreneurial venture: management skills, autonomy, communication skills, decisionmaking skills, innovation skills, leadership, learning skills, methodical approach, opportunism, perseverance, and tolerance to stress (Bergner, Auburger & Paleczek, 2021;Ferreira et al, 2012;Muniz et al, 2014;Salmony & Kanbach, 2021). Finally, two variables observe the students' preparedness towards entrepreneurship after the E&E course in terms of training and research, advice, knowledge of finance, innovation, social networking, and promotion and marketing.…”

Elaborating on a new entrepreneur typology from the corporate governance perspective

“…But the link between entrepreneur types and corporate governance is not highlighted, in particular via empirical studies (Tribbitt, 2012). Indeed, while several entrepreneur typologies have been constructed according to factors like psychological needs, risk and innovation, there is an ab-sence of work on the entrepreneur typologies building in relation to corporate governance (Salmony & Kanbach, 2021).…”