Exploring the influence of maladaptive personality traits on individual entrepreneurial orientation

What the paper says

Research emphasises the crucial role of the entrepreneur's personality in terms of success, economic growth, innovation, and competitiveness. Despite the known importance of the role of the individual, entrepreneurial research still overlooks key personality traits of individuals with strong entrepreneurial tendencies. Not only is the focus still on so called 'bright side' traits but even the in popularity growing research of so called 'dark side' traits is still using very narrow models that do not encompass a wide enough framework and misses out on crucial maladaptive traits. The central question is, what role do maladaptive personality traits play on entrepreneurial orientation? We surveyed 420 participants, using a new-maladaptive trait model to explore their impact. Furthermore, we further used Goldberg's big-five factor markers IPIP questionnaire to control for adaptive personality traits, as well as Holland's RIASEC and Schein's career anchors to measure individual entrepreneurial orientation. Our study reveals psychoticism to be the primary predictor of entrepreneurial orientation among maladaptive traits, antagonism and disinhibition were further maladaptive factors. These insights enhance our grasp of entrepreneurial orientation and raise awareness of the importance to not only include bright side traits or measure the dark triad (machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy) but also measure maladaptive traits in entrepreneurial research. Beyond this, our paper delivers practical implications for recruitment and developing entrepreneurial talent by demonstrating that, for example, a more in-depth assessment and understanding of a candidate's personality profile can reveal insights into individual strengths and motivations.