Green start-ups and the role of founder personality

Gary Chapman and Hanna Hottenrott

Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 2022, vol. 17, issue C

Abstract: Green start-ups play a vital role in the needed transition towards more environmentally sustainable economies. Yet our understanding of why some founders start green ventures and others do not remains incomplete. We build on the cognitive and decision-making perspectives on start-ups pro-environmental engagement to shed light on the role of founders' personality traits - focusing on the ‘Big 5’ and risk tolerance - in explaining whether founders' start new ventures with environmentally friendly products. Our analysis of a large, representative, manufacturing and service sector sample of German start-ups illustrates the important role of founder personality traits. Specifically, openness and extraversion promote environmentally friendly products while neuroticism inhibits them. We discuss the implications of these insights.

Keywords: Emission reduction; Environmentally friendly products; Green innovation; Big five personality traits; Sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G24 L26 O25 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Working Paper: Green Start-ups and the Role of Founder Personality (2022)
Working Paper: Green start-ups and the role of founder personality (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:17:y:2022:i:c:s2352673422000142

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2022.e00316

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