Personality Approach to Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Personality Approach to Entrepreneurship - Essay Example In many instances the question of personality assessment on entrepreneurship is defined in dichotomous terms: one strand seeks to determine the type of person that is drawn towards entrepreneurship and the other identifies the specific personality characteristics that contribute to that person’s success or failure. Furthermore, the changing definitions of what actually constitutes entrepreneurship are oftentimes attempted to be retrospectively established by the examining the specific personality traits of the entrepreneurs. While recent times have seen a renewed acceptance among the academic establishment of the relevancy of personality entrepreneurial approaches, this has been a recent change in perspective, as for many decades they had been derided as largely frivolous. In assessing the major literature related to the personal approach to entrepreneurship, this essay situates it within a historical context, critical analyzes contemporary approaches to the issue, and offers suggestions for future research. Even as it wasn’t officially recognized as the ‘personality approach to entrepreneurship’, psychological investigations into the nature of the entrepreneur have been in existence throughout the majority of the 20th century. Indeed, when formulating theories on entrepreneurial economic development renowned economist Joseph Schumpeter (1935) references personality traits such as innovativeness, dominance, and achievement orientation. On a larger scale, economists have attributed the economic success of nations to the personality characteristics of their inhabitants (McClelland 1961). A contemporary interpretation of such formulations -- considering national moves towards globalization in the 21st century -- might deem such a theory racially biased, and it seems that indeed in the later part of the 20th century the personal approach to entrepreneurship took on a more specialized mode of inquiry.