ABSTRACT
Research concerned with the personality of entrepreneurs entails an important part of the research into the management of small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurship. This research has added new knowledge about the role of entrepreneurs' personality characteristics, their family entrepreneurial background, and the local supportive entrepreneurial background in entrepreneurial start-up intentions and behaviors. Hypotheses and a model were developed and verified using structural equation modeling and regression analysis considering data from a sample of entrepreneurs and students. This research revealed that several personality and sociological factors can be important for entrepreneurship when it comes to starting a business. The most important were the Big Five personality factors openness, extraversion, and non-agreeableness and, to a smaller extent, emotional stability (non-neuroticism), and conscientiousness. The second-most important group of factors were the specific motivational characteristics entrepreneurial self-efficacy, internal locus of control, and risk-taking propensity. Sociological factors were much less important than psychological elements for establishing business.
ABSTRACT
Researchers have studied entrepreneurial curiosity and innovativeness as determinants of entrepreneurial behavior but have not linked them with company growth in a model. The intention of this enquiry was to examine the associations between the entrepreneur's psychological constructs of entrepreneurial curiosity and innovativeness and business growth, as examined by the conceptualization and analysis of hypotheses. For this research, data were obtained via a survey questionnaire. The sample consisted of 851 entrepreneurs of companies in three European countries. Each company had 250 workers or fewer. This study contributes to the entrepreneurship knowledge base by presenting empirical testimony on the associations between entrepreneurial curiosity, entrepreneurial innovativeness, and firm growth, as well as presenting advanced cross-nationally analogous measurement instruments of entrepreneurial curiosity and innovativeness. The entrepreneur's curiosity is important for their innovativeness, and this innovativeness is essential for business growth.
ABSTRACT
Entrepreneurs as individuals are the main drivers of entrepreneurship and possess distinct personality characteristics. The study focused on entrepreneurial openness and creativity on the entrepreneurial level relative to business growth. Hypotheses were developed and empirically tested in structural equation models using survey data obtained from SMEs' entrepreneurs in three countries. This study adds to what is known about entrepreneurship and small business management in terms of normative research on firm growth by empirically examining the relationships between the entrepreneurial openness, creative personality, and creativity of the entrepreneur and growth of the company. Moreover, the study develops refined internationally comparable measures of entrepreneurial openness, entrepreneur creativity, and a creative personality. An entrepreneur's openness and creative personality may be essential for their creativity. The entrepreneur's creativity may be a vital element of company growth in some countries.
