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Abstract
This study explored the relationship between individual differences and behavioral intentions toward entrepreneurial careers, defined here as owning one's own business. Of particular interest was a recent innovation in the individual differences literature - the proactive personality scale. Using a sample of 181 students, entrepreneurial intentions were found to be significantly associated with gender, education,
having an entrepreneurial parent, and possessing a proactive personality. The strongest association was found between entrepreneurial intentions and the proactive personality scale. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that proactivity explained significant incremental variance in entrepreneurial intentions above and beyond that explained by the other variables.
In a review of trends in the entrepreneurship literature, Gartner (1990) identified eight themes characterizing the major issues of entrepreneurship. One of these themes focused on the entrepreneur as an individual, and the notion that entrepreneurship involves individuals with unique personality characteristics and abilities. Within this domain of research, five attributes have consistently been found to covary with entrepreneurship: need for achievement, locus of control, risk-taking propensity, tolerance for ambiguity, and Type-A behavior (Brockhaus 1982; Brockhaus and Horwitz 1986; Furnham 1992).
Despite these findings, a number of scholars have expressed dissatisfaction with extant knowledge of the personalityentrepreneurship relationship. Chell, Haworth, and Brearley (1991) suggested that disagreement on the meaning of "entrepreneurship" has impeded research progress; moreover, these authors advocated using trait terms which describe natural categories accessible to lay persons. Gartner (1988) noted that theoretical models seeking to explain the broad phenomenon of entrepreneurship would benefit by including variables beyond traits alone. Robinson et al. (1991) argued for more dynamic models of the entrepreneurship process. Shaver and Scott (1991) identified the methodological weaknesses of much entrepreneurial trait research (including the research that generated the attributes listed above) and argued for consistency between the specificity of measures and underlying constructs.
Perhaps as a result of criticisms such as these, recently little research has been published examining the relationship between personality traits and entrepreneurship. Considerable attention has been devoted to creating ambitious models of various entrepreneurial processes, such as new venture initiation (Herron and Sapienza 1992), entrepreneurial potential (Krueger and Brazeal 1994), and entrepreneurial motivation (Naffziger, Hornsby, and Kuratko 1994). These conceptual frameworks have significantly enhanced the precision of theory surrounding the entrepreneurship process....