Quantum mechanics

German

Social psychology

Trait

Archaeology

Operating system

Economics

Computer science

Personality psychology

Physics

Big Five personality traits

Psychology

Entrepreneurship

Econometrics

Artificial intelligence

Self-employment

Programming language

Finance

Perspective (graphical)

Action (physics)

Personality

Profiling (computer programming)

History

Small Business Economics

The Big Five personality traits and their influence on entrepreneurial action have been repeatedly studied using a trait-based approach. The present paper partly deviates from this perspective by analysing the role of personality prototypes in relation to entrepreneurship. This person-centred approach suggests that combinations of Big Five traits form individual personalities. By using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we show that at least three prototypes can be identified, one of which — the resilient type — can be hypothesized to significantly increase the likelihood of entrepreneurial action. Our regression results provide evidence of a positive impact of this prototype on the likelihood of and transitioning into self-employment but not the likelihood of exit. We also show that the prototyping approach explains individual self-employment decisions over and above what can already be explained by the profiling approach, another person-centred Big Five approach. The paper concludes with implications for policy and research.

Resilient entrepreneurs? — revisiting the relationship between the Big Five and self-employment