Enterprise and Small Business Principles

The psychology of the entrepreneur

Frederic Delmar

8.1 Introduction

In this chapter, evidence on the entrepreneurial personality and behaviour is reviewed. It begins by describing how this area has evolved until now, concentrating on differ­ent problems and criticisms related to the subject. Thereafter, entrepreneurial traits are reviewed such as the need for achievement, locus of control and risk-taking propen­sity. The chapter then continues with an overview of current research and results about entrepreneurial behaviour, with a focus on cognitive motivation models which have the ability to address individual differences in entrepreneurial behaviour and perform­ance. This chapter also addresses the training and education of potential entrepreneurs.

8.2 Learning objectives

There are six learning objectives in this chapter:

1 To explore the development of the field.

2 To examine why the traits approach has previously been adopted to study the entrepreneur.

3 To understand why the traits approach has failed in understanding entrepreneurial behaviour.

4 To define and explore the major theoretical schools of the psychology of the entrepreneur.

5 To understand the practical as well as theoretical advantages of cognitive models.

6 To understand how entrepreneurship can be promoted from a psychological perspective.

Key concepts

■ personality characteristics ■ proximal and distal processes ■ cognition

■ motivation ■ entrepreneurial behaviour