Can Becoming an Entrepreneur Shape Your Personality Traits? A Three-Wave Longitudinal Investigation

Abstract

Micro entrepreneurship research has predominantly adopted the dispositional perspective of personality traits, assuming that entrepreneurs possess certain personality traits that are distinctive from non-entrepreneurs, and interpreted the findings as personality traits driving individuals to become entrepreneurs, not vice versa. As such, micro entrepreneurship research has yet to examine the possibility that entrepreneurship experiences may foster personality development over time. Recent theory and research in personality psychology suggest that adult personality traits are both relatively stable, and subject to change as people transition into novel life roles. In this research, we adopt a role-based perspective and a quasi-experimental design to examine personality development of a group of individuals that transitioned from employees into entrepreneurship roles (i.e., self employment) in a three-wave longitudinal study across approximately twenty years and compared their personality development with an equivalent group of individuals (matched via propensity score matching) that remained as employees over time. We theorized that transitioning into entrepreneurship roles from employees may foster decreases in agreeableness and increases in neuroticism and conscientiousness. We found support for hypotheses on changes on agreeableness and neuroticism. This research advances entrepreneurship research on the causal interpretation of the relationship between personality and entrepreneurship status and offer practical implications for employees, entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurship training.