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The reasons for the importance of looking at the application of psychological tests to entrepreneurs include the idea that there is a correlation between economic growth and business formations. This draws attention to the activities of entrepreneurs and methods of identifying and assessing these individuals. This article discusses the results of some psychological tests which have been used with entrepreneurs.
Interest in the application of psychological test to entrepreneurs stems from interest in exploring the elusive nature of the entrepreneur. Tests may also help to assess participants on enterprise training courses as well as help with the selection of entrepreneurs for training, advice and financial support.
Previous reviews of this area have focused more on definitional issues than on psychological measurement (e.g.[1]). This is important because there are problems in defining and identifying entrepreneurs. The term "entrepreneur" usually refers to innovative, risk-taking business owner-managers. However, some definitions may apply not only to the occupation of business owner-management but to the psychological characteristics associated with entrepreneurial behaviour. The concept of entrepreneur could therefore broadly apply to any individual in any occupation of any status who shows entrepreneurial initiative. For example, there have been studies of so-called social entrepreneurs who set up enterprises in the voluntary sector with aims to benefit society rather rather than make profits[2].
Clearly, entrepreneurs are not a homogeneous population and there may be different types of entrepreneurs, distinguished by their growth orientation, motivation, type of business, involvement with new technology, association with business owner-management, and so on. The simplest and most easily operationalized definition of an entrepreneur is a business owner-manager. However, even this definition has limitations because an entrepreneur is a special category of business owner-manager, that is an innovative risk-taker. Although this is less easy to operationalize, it is the definition maintained in this article unless otherwise stated.
The main problems in the psychological testing of entrepreneurs relate to the varying definitions of the entrepreneur, the numerous characteristics attributed to entrepreneurs and uncertainty about the significance of entrepreneurial characteristics. These problems largely account for the main uses of psychological tests with entrepreneurs which are either to explore the nature of the entrepreneur or to assess so-called significant entrepreneurial characteristics.
These problems limit a review of the psychological tests employed with...