Kelly Shaver, president of MindCette, on the Psychology of the Entrepreneur. Presented at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Johannesburg, South Africa.

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PSYCHOLOGY OF THE ENTREPRENEUR
Kelly G. Shaver
President, MindCette®, LLC

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Guiding principle
• Economic circumstances, social capital, teams, marketing, finance, and
even entrepreneurial ecosystems are all important,
• But none of these alone will create a new venture,
• For that, we need a person in whose mind the possibilities come together,
who believes that innovation is possible, and who will persist until the job
is done.

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“Entrepreneurs are born…”
• True, there is a genetic contribution (Shane & Nicolaou, 2015),
• But “genetic influence on behavior is just that – an influence or
contributing factor…” (Plomin, DeFries, Knopik, & Neiderheiser, 2013)
• And there are the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data

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Other influences
• Nature of the economic system (necessity versus opportunity)
• Government policy and regulation
• Parents, especially self-employed mothers
(Polin, Ehrman, & Kay, 2016)
• Gender roles
• “Local” social norms (friends, family)

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Broad aspects of personality
• Openness to experience
• Extraversion
• Conscientiousness
• Agreeableness

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Specific traits
• Achievement motivation
• Self-efficacy, especially entrepreneurial S-E
• Risk propensity (or perception of risk)
• Locus of control (internal)

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Cognitive processes
• Schemata and scripts
• Cognitive maps of novices and experts
• Heuristics and biases
• Expectancies
• Neuropsychological differences?

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Behavioral tendencies
• Problem solving
• Action orientation – begging forgiveness
• Leadership potential
• Self-monitoring and emotional intelligence

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Persistence and adaptability
• Perseverance (e.g. “grit”)
• Diligence and hard work
• Ability to change direction
• Resilience following failure
• Attributions for success/failure
• Coachability

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Where to from here?
• Entrepreneurial “mindset” not “personality”
• Search for multiple dimensions
• Careful operational definitions
• Appropriate comparisons
• Surveys, panel studies, experiments

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Thank you!
• More at http://www.kauffman.org/microsites/state-of-the-
field/topics/background-of-entrepreneurs/behavioral-determinants-
and-motivation
• Questions to kelly.shaver@gmail.com
• Watch for additions to www.mindcette.com

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LEVERAGE THE GEC
PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Bill Aulet of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship,
speaker at GEC Medellin in 2016
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ABOUT
GEC JOHANNESBURG: MARCH 2017
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CONTACT
Ingrid Vanderveldt, founder of the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs, speaker at GEC Moscow in 2014
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The Global Entrepreneurship Congress is part of the
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