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Personality Features of the Entrepreneur

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: Business
Wordcount: 2888 words Published: 6th Dec 2017

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  1. Ability to set high personal but obtainable aims
  2. The concern of personal accomplishment, rather than reward of success

Knowledge and experience-According to Schultz (1975) states that entrepreneur talent is not only innate, but may also improve by experience and education. Entrepreneur knowledge is the important element for any company performance. Brüderl et al (1992) states that the higher level of Entrepreneur education bring positivity in the productivity, which automatically leads to increase the company profit. Hence higher productivity helps to increase efficiency and processing of management and on otherwise tends to attract the customers and participating profitably with suppliers and Investors. Hambrick and Mason(1984) also concludes that company success is totally dependent on the entrepreneur Knowledge. Knowledge mainly depends on the education and the past experience (Barker III and Mueller 2002; Hadjimanolis 2000).By attaining good knowledge, entrepreneur develops new innovative ideas and try to make them real. On the other hand Hisrich & Peter (1995); Mcgrath & MacMillan (2000) argues that there is perception that education experience do make contribution to the function of Entrepreneurship, however these experiences may not always exclusively transpire through formal education

The environment of the different culture can produce difference in attitude (Baskerville 2003) as well as differences in the behaviour of entrepreneurial (North 1990; Shane 1994) culture knowledge is another aspect which can be understood by entrepreneur. According to Zhao (2010), the cultural awareness could be defined as the understanding “of a people’s historical and cultural backgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking. Therefore, as Rogers and Steinfatt (1999) argue, culture has very powerful effects on individual behaviour including entrepreneurial behaviour. Vernon et aI (1997) explained that culture is an significant in any discussion of Entrepreneurship because it determines the attitude of individuals towards the commencement of Entrepreneurship.

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Prior hand experience is considered to be beneficial for any entrepreneur and can be expected to have a greater ability to resist unfavourable shocks and to perform corrective actions in a new venture. According to Davidsson and Honig (2003) & Starr and Bygrave (1992) explains that the previous experience helps to lead to an implement skills that critically influences subsequent efforts to establish and build up new ventures. Also Shane(2000) & Ucbasaran et al. (2003) concludes that the individuals who engage in the multiple starts-up called habitual entrepreneur, who develops a entrepreneurial approach and problem solving ability which automatically helps to increase their skill to recognize and utilize further opportunity.

Propensity to take Risk-Risk attitude influence the entire life cycle of Entrepreneur. According to Cramer et al (2002) & caliendo et al (2009), there is positive linkage between Risk attitude and the decision to become an Entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs tend to be more independently-minded, ready to take risks and accept the penalty if things go wrong.Casson (1982) concludes that risk taking ability and innovativeness are the personal characteristics and more over they have all the knowledge of handling business. Thus, people with more experience, higher abilities or greater knowledge in the field of potential self-employment tend to perceive the risks connected with certain decisions as lower ( Gifford 2003).Caird(1988) also agreed with Casson and concludes that successful entrepreneurs have abilities and knowledge to sense business risks and profitability and try to accurate errors to improve business performance and prospects. On the other hand Grable and Lytton (1998) also claim that the educational level of entrepreneurs is the most important variable in distinguishing risk-taking intensity in businesses.

Psychological theory has pointed out that the individual’s risk attitude is only one of numerous personal variables possibly influencing the decision to become an entrepreneur ( Rauch and Frese 2000). Person risk attitude is one of the key variable In the choice between a salaried job and entrepreneurship. According to Chell et al. (1991), there should be an inverse U-shaped relation between risk attitudes and entrepreneurial survival, where low risk attitudes characterize more risk averse and high risk attitudes indicate less risk averse persons. Recent research by Baron (2004) and K¨ollinger et al (2007) provides further explanations for why particularly risk-seeking entrepreneurs might decide to start a business venture, even if low or even negative outcomes may arise with relatively high probability.

Leadership-

According to Graen and Scandura(1987) Leadership is broadly viewed as an interactive process, dependent upon both leaders and followers . and an entrepreneur is often described as a leader who must define a vision of what is possible and attract people to rally around that vision and transform it into reality (Kao, 1989). Hence, it is argued that there is interconnection between entrepreneurship and leadership (Jensen and Luthans, 2006) and to be successful entrepreneurs must possess leadership skills (Colbert, 2003).A leader has to be Entrepreneur aswell.It has been written that Entrepreneurial leadership deals with concepts and ideas,which are related to problems that are not of an organisational nature ( EL-Namaki 1992). Hinterhuber and Krauthammer (1998) assert that in today’s turbulent environment, which demands not only continual innovation but radical improvements in all stakeholders’ satisfaction, leadership is more critical than ever for entrepreneurs. Author agin states that leadership stands onthree pillars:

(1) Envisioning

(2) Being an example and

(3) Increasing the value of the firm

Avolio et al (2004) provided a theory driven Framework for Studying Entrepreneur as a leader, with the focus on experience, self regulatory process, and leader behaviour

The above theory explores that how a entrepreneur leadership can positively linked to the organisation commitment, satisfaction of the job, happiness to his/her employees. Rhoades et al(2001) add on that when employees are treated in a fair and caring manner, they become more committed towards the organisation ,and more likely to have positive attitude.

Confidence- Confidence is the key to success for any individual. Very few Entrepreneur need to have important skills, out of which confidence is very vital. Confidence helps entrepreneur to convert an idea into Business success. According to Wilson et al., (2007) self confidence is based on the abilities and perception of the skills rather than objective ability. But Global Entrepreneurship Monitor(GEM) found that there is difference between the level of self confidence & ability to believe in an entrepreneurs & non-entrepreneurs. Minniti et al., 2004) also supports the idea of GEM that there is difference between the level of confidence in an Entrepreneur. Boyd and Vozikis’s theory of intentionality helps us understand the role of confidence here too. They argue that self-efficacy not only positively influences intention, but that it also influences the transformation of intention into action (Boyd and Vozikis, 1994).While many entrepreneurs may have a clear intention to start a business, not all do, and one of the things which predicts entrepreneurial action (i.e. launch) is self-efficacy. High confidence promotes a go-ahead spirit that can lead to success amid such uncertainty (Bazerman,1998)

On the other hand Forbes (2005) states that the Entrepreneur who found their own business are more over confident than those who dint. According to Griffin and Varey, (1996) ,over confident is treated as situation specific. He means that the individual who is overconfident in one task might not be in second one. Gist and Mitchell (1992) Social cognitive theory tells us that self-efficacy, an assessment of one’s confidence, is situation specific and implemented to the particular tasks rather than a general state of being.

The real power to attract money comes from our own self-reliance, determination, and will; not from any dependence on another’s help and support. The power to attract money comes from the psychological viewpoint that I am the ultimate determinant of my fate. One of the reason’s for America’s founding and continuous success was that her people were dedicated to self-reliance.

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Opportunity-According to Shane et al (2000) The major task of entrepreneur is to find out and utilize oppurtunities

Risk taking Capability- according to

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