Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs: A Review of Recent Literature

Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs collects and organize the latest findings on the prevalence of various personality traits among the entrepreneurial population and their impact on venture performance covering academic work ranging from economics to psychology to management studies. This survey focuses on three core themes: (1) the personality traits of entrepreneurs and how they compare to other groups; (2) the attitudes towards risk that entrepreneurs display; and (3) the overall goals and aspirations that entrepreneurs bring to their pursuits. These themes cover most of the main theoretical contributions to the entrepreneurial traits literature, which are quite diverse, while at the same time enabling the identification of common concerns across apparently separate research streams. An appendix provides a short discussion of some major factors influencing entrepreneurial decisions beyond personality: demographics, household assets and financing constraints, measurable skills like work experience and education, and local environment. For those interested in measuring entrepreneurial risk attitudes and personality traits in their own work, an additional online appendix documents some of the survey instruments commonly utilized.