Resilient entrepreneurs? — revisiting the relationship between the Big Five and self-employment

Petrik Runst () and Jörg Thomä
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Petrik Runst: Institute for Small Business Economics at the Georg-August-University Göttingen
Jörg Thomä: Institute for Small Business Economics at the Georg-August-University Göttingen

Small Business Economics, 2023, vol. 61, issue 1, No 18, 417-443

Abstract: Abstract The Big Five personality traits and their influence on entrepreneurial action have been repeatedly studied using a trait-based approach. The present paper partly deviates from this perspective by analysing the role of personality prototypes in relation to entrepreneurship. This person-centred approach suggests that combinations of Big Five traits form individual personalities. By using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we show that at least three prototypes can be identified, one of which — the resilient type — can be hypothesized to significantly increase the likelihood of entrepreneurial action. Our regression results provide evidence of a positive impact of this prototype on the likelihood of and transitioning into self-employment but not the likelihood of exit. We also show that the prototyping approach explains individual self-employment decisions over and above what can already be explained by the profiling approach, another person-centred Big Five approach. The paper concludes with implications for policy and research.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Self-employment; Big Five; Personality; Prototypes; Profiles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 L26 M13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11187-022-00686-7

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