Personality characteristics and the decision to become and stay self-employed

Arbeitspapier

This paper systematically investigates whether different kinds of personality characteristics influence entrepreneurial development. On the basis of a large, representative household panel survey, we examine the extent to which the Big Five traits and further personality characteristics, which are more specifically related to entrepreneurial tasks, influence entry into self-employment and survival of self-employed persons in Germany. The empirical analysis reveals that among the specific characteristics in particular risk attitudes and locus of control have strong effects on entry and survival. With respect to the Big Five approach, in particular the traits openness to experience and extraversion and to a lower extent agreeableness and neuroticism help to explain entrepreneurial development. The explanatory power of the Big Five is comparable to one of the most prominent determinants of entrepreneurship - education - and approximately three times larger than parental self-employment.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 5566

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty ; Labor Demand ; New Firms; Startups
• Subject: entrepreneurship ; personality ; Big Five ; risk aversion ; locus of control ; Unternehmer ; Selbstständige ; Persönlichkeitspsychologie ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Caliendo, Marco ; Fossen, Frank M. ; Kritikos, Alexander S.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2011

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/51969
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-201104133888
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET