The Study of Person-Environment Fit in Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Research on person-environment fit in entrepreneurship has become a central and quickly growing field of research. Yet, rapid growth has led to various theoretical conceptualizations and methodological operationalizations of person-environment fit, which has yielded a largely fragmented body of existing work. To assess and organize this research, we develop a typology of person-environment fit and provide an integrative synthesis that explains the relationship between person-environment fit and outcomes of the new venture creation process. Furthermore, we discuss how the study of person-environment fit in entrepreneurship can be advanced, given the research gap in the extant literature and latest development in related fields such as organizational psychology and organizational behavior. By identifying numerous research opportunities that may not be seen from the extant individual work, we chart a path for how the theory of person-environment fit can further help understand entrepreneurship.