Entrepreneurship

& Small Business

Chapter 3: The entrepreneurial character

ESB
 New venture creation
Business
idea

Character Skills &

traits abilities

Start-up
Success
Resources Business
plan
 Start-up capital

Financial
capital

Human Social
capital capital
 Souqalmal

1. What human & social capital does

Ambareen Musa possess?
2. How did her education & experience
help her in starting up Souqalmal?
Barriers & triggers to entrepreneurship

Barriers to start-up
(situational & psychological)
Push factors Pull factors
(situational):  Need for regular income (psychological):
 Unemployment  Fear of loss of capital  Independence
 Disagreements Triggers
 No capital
 Recognition
 ‘Misfit’  Personal
 No other  Risk averse development
option  Wealth
 Doubts about ability
 Marc Demarquette

What was Marc’s trigger for

entrepreneurship? Explain.

Demarquette
 Myths about entrepreneurs
They …
 are visionary
 have good ideas & you don’t
 are risk takers
 have money & you don’t
 are extraordinary forecasters
 are not like the rest of us
& you don’t know how to take the plunge
 Entrepreneurial character
Drive & determination

Need for Need for

achievement independence

Acceptance of Creativity,
measured risk & innovation &
uncertainty opportunism
Internal locus
of control
 Need for independence

You are likely to be a person who:

 dislikes taking orders
 prefers to work alone & ‘do their own
thing’
 likes to make up their own mind & not
bow to pressure
 can be seen as stubborn & determined
 prefers to do ‘unconventional’ things
 Need for achievement

You are likely to be a person who is:

 restless & energetic
 task & results orientated
 persistent & determined
 forward looking & self-sufficient
 optimistic rather than pessimistic
 Internal locus of control

You are likely to be a person who:

 believes you control your own destiny &
discounts fate
 believes you create your own luck by hard
work and effort
 is self-confident & shows considerable
determination
 is willing to take advantages of
opportunities that present themselves
 Drive & determination
You are likely to be a person who:
 is proactive rather than reactive
 acts decisively & quickly
 sets achievable goals & then works hard
to achieve them
 is persistent & determined
 continues in a task despite set-backs
 is ‘on the go’ all the time
 restless & easily bored
 Creative & innovative

You are likely to be a person who:

 is curious & questioning
 is intuitive & imaginative
 is innovative with an abundance of ideas
 is a bit of a daydreamer
 enjoys change & the challenges it poses
 Moderate risk-taking

You are likely to be a person who:

 makes decisions quickly
 can act on incomplete information
evaluating likely costs against benefits
 accurately assesses your capabilities &
then sets challenging but attainable goals
 is neither over- nor under-ambitious
 Criticisms of trait approach

 Traits are not stable & can change

 Measuring personality traits requires
subjective judgements
 Measurement tends to ignore cultural,
environmental and contextual influences
 The role of education, learning & training is
often overlooked
 Issues such as age, sex, race, social class
& education can be ignored
 Jack Cator

What lessons do you learn from

Jack Cator & HMA!?

Jack Cator
 Jack Cator’s top tips

1. Exploit your age

2. Go out and get the experience
3. Understand your audience (customer needs)
4. Branding is everything
5. Get it out there (lean start-up)
6. Make use of free marketing
7. Engage with users
8. Don’t delegate too early (understand all
operations)
9. Outsource your staff (+ partnering)
10. You don’t need financing
Five-Factor personality model

 Openness

 Conscientiousness

 Extraversion

 Agreeableness

 Neuroticism
 Influences on our character traits

Situational
factors

Cultures
& sub-
cultures

Personal
character
traits

Burns
 Adam Schwab

1. Going from his history, what social

& human capital does Adam
Schwab poses?
2. What lessons do you learn about
the entrepreneurial character from
Adam Schwab?

Adam Schwab
 Dimensions of culture

 Individualism vs. collectivism – the degree to

which people prefer to act as individuals
rather than as groups
 Power distance – the degree of inequality
accepted by the community
 Uncertainty avoidance – the degree to which
people avoid ambiguity/uncertainty & prefer
structure
 Masculine vs. feminine – quality of life issues
like individual achievement & assertiveness
vs. relationships & concern for others

Hofstede, 1981
 National cultures
Low High
South America, USA, UK, France,
INDIVIDUALISM
Saudi Arabia, Australia, Canada
Pakistan
USA, UK, South America,
Germany, POWER DISTANCE France, Malaysia,
Scandinavia Saudi Arabia

USA, UK, Greece, France,

UNCERTAINTY
Hong Kong, Portugal, Uruguay,
AVOIDANCE
Singapore Saudi Arabia

USA, Austria,
North Europe MASCULINITY UK, Japan,
Germany
Entrepreneurship & national cultures
LOW HIGH

HIGH INDIVIDUALISM

LOW POWER DISTANCE

LOW UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE

HIGH MASCULINITY

National/Individual
entrepreneurial culture
 Sadaf Gallery

1. What factors made Sahar take up

entrepreneurship?
2. What lessons did she learn that
contributed to her success?
3. What is the importance of Sahar as
a role model in Oman?
Social & demographic influences

 Education

 Age

 Family background

 Partnering

 Emigration & ethnicity

 Gender
 Golden Krust

What were the motivations to launch

Golden Krust & how does being a
family business help or hinder it?

GK History
General Enterprise Tendency (GET) test

 Need for achievement

 Need for autonomy

 Creativity

 Risk taking

 Internal locus of control

GET
General Enterprise Tendency (GET) test
 Problems with psychological testing of
entrepreneurs are the varying definitions of
entrepreneur, numerous characteristics
attributed to entrepreneurs & uncertainty
about their significance
 Literature review undertaken to support test
suggested an emphasis on these key
characteristics & the test was built on this
 Enterprising tendency is defined as the
tendency to start up & manage ‘projects’ - not
just a business
 Growth firms

More likely to be set-up by:

 A group rather than an individual

 Men rather than women
 The middle aged (or very young?)
 Experienced managers
 Duncan Bannatyne

1. Why did Duncan become an

entrepreneur?
2. What are the major influences on
him & how have they affected his
character?
3. What entrepreneurial character
traits can you observe in him?

Bannatyne
 Intrapreneurial characteristics
1. Does striving to make things work better occupy as much of your time as
working on existing systems and duties?
2. Do you get excited about work?
3. Do you think about new business ideas in your spare time?
4. Can you see what needs to be done to make new ideas happen?
5. Do you get into trouble for doing things that exceed your authority?
6. Can you keep your ideas secret until they are tested & more developed?
7. Have you overcome the despondency you feel when a project you are
working on looks as if it might fail & pushed on to complete it?
8. Do you have a network of work colleagues you can count on for support?
9. Do you get annoyed & frustrated when others cannot successfully
execute your ideas?
10. Can you overcome the desire to do all the work on a project yourself &
share responsibility with others?
11. Would you be willing to give up some salary to try out a business
idea, provided the final rewards were adequate?
Pinchot, 1985
Social entrepreneurship construct

risk tolerance,
pro-activeness,
innovation

social
social judgement
opportunity
recognition entrepreneurship capacity

entrepreneurially
virtuous

Mort et al., 2003

 John Bird & The Big Issue

1. What character traits do you observe in

John Bird?
2. What are the major influences on him &
how have they affected his character?
3. Is The Big Issue self-sustainable? If so,
why is this important?
4. What do you think about the move into
social trading?

BI Story TED talk