Content area
Full text
Using a sample of 215 small company presidents, this study examined the relationship of the president's proactivity disposition to his/her entrepreneurial behavior. Entrepreneurial behavior was measured in terms of starting versus not starting the business. the number of startups, and the types of ownership (start, purchase, inherit). The relationships of proactivity to the firm's entrepreneurial posture, its performance, and the extent of
the president,, delegation of authority were also examined. The president's level of proactivity was related to each of three types of entrepreneurial behavior. Proactivity was directly and significantly related to the entrepreneurial posture of the firm and to change in sales of the firm. No relationship was found between proactivity and change in profits or delegation-of-authority style.
Much of the effort to understand entrepreneurship and new venture creation has focused on the characteristics of individual entrepreneurs. From the early work of McClelland (1961) which focused on the need for achievement as a personality characteristic of entrepreneurs, the field has examined a number of different traits like locus of control, propensity to take risks, personal values, and tolerance for ambiguity in a variety of different studies (see for example, Hornaday and Aboud 1971; Timmons 1978; Brockhaus 1980; Brockhaus and Horwitz 1986; Carland, Hoy, and Carland 1988; Hebert and Bass 1995). This traitoriented line of research has come under fire as "inadequate to explain the phenomenon of entrepreneurship" (Gartner 1988, p. 12).
As the preoccupation with individual traits has been de-emphasized, several other elements of entrepreneurship have been proposed to define the entrepreneur. "Behavior" has been argued as the best method to identity an entrepreneur (Gartner 1994), and it is suggested that founding a business is one behavior which certainly defines entrepreneurship (Stewart, Carland, and Carland 1996). Another type of behavior which has been linked to entrepreneurial activity is strategic planning (Olsen 1985), as entrepreneurs plan in more depth than small business owners (Carland et al. 1984). Other studies have identified a number of elements that define entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behavior including: leadership and dimensions of teamwork, organizational creation, opportunity recognition, innovation, risk assumption, marshaling of resources, and the creation of value (Stearns and Hills 1996). While many studies have enumerated the wide variety of elements that may define an entrepreneur, it has...