Using the HEXACO-100 to measure Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation: Introducing the HEXACO-IEO

Abstract

Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation (IEO) is a three-dimensional conceptualization of personality traits that influence entrepreneurial outcomes, and it includes risk-taking, innovativeness, and proactiveness. Much is still unknown about IEO, in part due to the relative recency of its conceptualization and subsequent operationalization. Advancing our understanding of IEO could be greatly hastened if an existing, widespread measure was shown to approximate a supported measure of IEO. Existing datasets using this widespread measure could be reanalyzed to derive new inferences regarding IEO, and future authors administering this widespread measure for other purposes could simultaneously study IEO. One such nonproprietary measure that may gauge IEO is the HEXACO-100 (also labeled the HEXACO-PI-R). In the current article, we identify a collection of items from the HEXACO-100 that closely approximate a supported measure of IEO and its three dimensions, as evidenced by the measure’s psychometric properties as well as convergent and criterion validity. We label this collection of items the HEXACO-IEO. The identification of this measure opens many avenues for future research. The HEXACO-100 has been studied alongside a wide array of constructs – constructs that can now be studied alongside IEO. Also, the current study connects IEO with specific dimensions of the HEXACO. As this framework has been linked with many personality theories, IEO can too be linked with these theories. We specifically suggest that the Situation, Trait, and Outcome Activation (STOA) model may offer notable insights into IEO. Thus, the current article provides many implications for research on entrepreneurship, personality, and their intersection.