Do You Have What it Takes? - Personality Traits of Social Entrepreneurs

Abstract

The changing landscape of entrepreneurism is one of the drivers behind the rapid rise of social entrepreneurs. Literature suggests that an important moderating factor for entrepreneurial success is the personality of entrepreneurs. However, fewer studies have looked into personality traits of social entrepreneurs. This study proposes several hypotheses for interesting characteristics of social entrepreneurs. Results of this study are relevant because it will provide useful information for social entrepreneurs themselves, for organizations in general, when in need of social entrepreneurs, managers of CEO’s and for educational institutions. Results suggest that there indeed seem to be distinctions between social entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in general. Social entrepreneurs distinguish themselves principally on the fact that they are more introversion-oriented than their counterparts who are not engaging in social activities and the fact that their choices are much more led by feelings than by logical reason. There also seem to be differences when variables such as innovation-consciousness and size of organization are taken into account. This literature review leads to several apparent hypotheses that should be tested with empirical, qualitative research.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, psychology, personality, organization growth