The Entrepreneurial Personality

Is there such a thing as an 'entrepreneurial personality'? What makes someone an entrepreneur is a question that has intrigued the lay person and the scholar for many years, but can such a personality be identified or is it simply a socially constructed phenomenon? Elizabeth Chell pursues an alternative line of argument: to show that the entrepreneurial personality is, on the one hand, socially constructed, but on the other hand, presents consistency in behaviours, skills and competencies.

This second edition of the highly acclaimed The Entrepreneurial Personality revisits the topic and updates the evidence from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The book carefully weaves together the arguments and views from economists, sociologists and psychologists in order to develop a strong conceptual foundation. It discusses the inferences that these experts have made about the nature of entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial process, and explores whether such evidence has enabled psychometricians to develop robust instruments for assessing the characteristics of entrepreneurs. The evidence for a range of purported traits is reviewed and the models and research designs of interested social scientists are explained and evaluated. Throughout, Chell laces her argument richly with a set of cases derived from primary and secondary sources.

This book presents a timely set of views on the entrepreneurial personality, and will be of great interest to academics in the fields of entrepreneurship, economics, management, applied psychology and sociology. This accessible text will also appeal to the interested general reader, as well as practitioners and consultants dealing with entrepreneurs in the field.

Elizabeth Chell has held chairs at the universities of Newcastle, UMIST/University of Manchester and Southampton. She has published extensively in the fields of Organisational and Entrepreneurial Behaviour, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Human Relations and Research Methods. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA) and the British Academy of Management.