Psychological aspects of entrepreneurship – How personality and cognitive abilities influence leadership
Palmer, Carolin (2019-12-18)
Väitöskirja
18.12.2019
Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT
Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis
School of Business and Management
School of Business and Management, Kauppatieteet
Kaikki oikeudet pidätetään.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-335-432-6
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-335-432-6
Tiivistelmä
About 100 years after Schumpeter’s initial work on “The Theory of Economic Development“, research on entrepreneurship is still a growing and remarkably dynamic field that comprises various research streams and builds on theories from management, economics, psychology, and sociology. Even though previous theoretical work and empirical research suggest that a simultaneous consideration of organizational characteristics of the firm as well as individual characteristics of the entrepreneur would improve the understanding of firm performance, researchers lack to integrate findings from different research streams and levels and thereby miss essential insights into the complex interplay in regard to entrepreneurial activity.
This thesis therefore investigates which psychological personality traits and cognitive abilities enable entrepreneurs to successfully handle the demanding challenges of becoming and being an entrepreneur and how they interact with contextual factors.
In doing so, this thesis comprises two parts. Part I sets out the background, literature, and conclusions of the thesis. Part II presents the five publications, which address distinct research sub-questions and, in their synopsis, derive an answer to the main research question.
Applying different research methods, such as literature review, fsQCA or structural equation modelling, with samples from 131 to 3,342 CEOs, students, and individuals with other occupational background (depending on research question within the respective publication), this thesis makes three main contributions. Firstly, it demonstrates the additional gain in knowledge, when individual level variables and organisational level factors are combined to explain firm performance. Secondly, it advocates for a holistic view on entrepreneurs that includes downsides of entrepreneurial activity and considers effects of dark personality traits. And thirdly, it takes a developmental perspective and highlights the importance to consider personality and contextual factors when researching the development of entrepreneurial intentions.
This thesis therefore investigates which psychological personality traits and cognitive abilities enable entrepreneurs to successfully handle the demanding challenges of becoming and being an entrepreneur and how they interact with contextual factors.
In doing so, this thesis comprises two parts. Part I sets out the background, literature, and conclusions of the thesis. Part II presents the five publications, which address distinct research sub-questions and, in their synopsis, derive an answer to the main research question.
Applying different research methods, such as literature review, fsQCA or structural equation modelling, with samples from 131 to 3,342 CEOs, students, and individuals with other occupational background (depending on research question within the respective publication), this thesis makes three main contributions. Firstly, it demonstrates the additional gain in knowledge, when individual level variables and organisational level factors are combined to explain firm performance. Secondly, it advocates for a holistic view on entrepreneurs that includes downsides of entrepreneurial activity and considers effects of dark personality traits. And thirdly, it takes a developmental perspective and highlights the importance to consider personality and contextual factors when researching the development of entrepreneurial intentions.
Kokoelmat
- Väitöskirjat [1102]