Are behavioral and electrophysiological measures of impulsivity useful for predicting entrepreneurship?

Christian Fisch,Ingmar H.A Franken,Roy Thurik

doi:10.1016/j.jbvi.2021.e00253

Abstract

We examine the association between several behavioral and electrophysiological indices of impulsivity-related constructs and multiple entrepreneurial constructs. Specifically, we investigate if these behavioral and electrophysiological measures are more useful as predictors of entrepreneurship than self-reported measures of impulsivity. Our findings are based on two datasets (n = 133 and n = 142) and indicate that behavioral and electrophysiological impulsivity measures are not robustly associated with entrepreneurship constructs, in contrast to self-reported measures of impulsivity. Though disappointing at first, our findings pave the way for future research on the relevance of behavioral and electrophysiological measures for entrepreneurship.

Highlights

Interest in the association between impulsivity and entrepreneurship has surged recently
Wiklund et al (2017a) argue that impulsivity may be an asset in an entrepreneurial career and that uncertain contexts such as entrepreneurship attract impulsive individuals
We use partly the same data as Bernoster et al (2019), who study the associations between self-report measures, behavioral measures, and electrophysiological measures for impulsivity and related constructs

Summary

Introduction

Interest in the association between impulsivity and entrepreneurship has surged recently. Impulsivity and impulsivity-related constructs such as sensation seeking (Wiklund et al, 2017a) and symptoms of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; Antshel, 2017; Verheul et al, 2015; Wismans et al, 2020) have been associated with entrepreneurial intention (Antshel, 2017; Geenen et al, 2016; Verheul et al, 2015), preferences (Wiklund et al, 2017b), action (Antshel, 2017; Wiklund et al, 2017a), and orientation (Wismans et al, 2020) These studies typically use self-report scales to operationalize impulsivity, which are constructed to have convergent and discriminant validity as well as high reliability. The advantage of behavioral and electrophysiological measures in comparison to self-reports is that they are implicit and can be more objective (Bernoster et al, 2019)

Methods

Results

Conclusion