Research On The Influence Of Entrepreneur Traits On The Performance Of New Ventures

As the main participant of entrepreneurial practice,the unique role played by entrepreneurs in improving the performance of startups has always been a hot topic in the field of entrepreneurship.And scholars have carried out a lot of exploration from the perspectives of human capital,social capital and personality traits.Among them,the personality traits of entrepreneur are considered to be the core internal driving force for entrepreneurs to participate in entrepreneurial activities and achieve success,which also is an important basis for answering what type of people are more suitable for entrepreneurship and more likely to succeed.However,the current research mainly focuses on the positive traits possessed by entrepreneurs,but the lack of examination of the negative traits of entrepreneurs that has recently sparked much discussion in academic.Moreover,existing studies rely on evaluation indicators at a single point in time when measuring the performance of startups,failing to comprehensively consider the impact of the development stage of the company,and thus it is difficult to systematically reveal the deep-seated mechanism of entrepreneurial traits on the performance of startups.In addition,human capital,as an important resource owned by entrepreneurs,has been widely validated for its positive effect on the performance of startups,but few literatures regard entrepreneurial human capital as a contingent factor to investigate its possible regulatory role,and studies about the moderating effect of entrepreneurial human capital on the relationship between entrepreneurial traits and startup performance are even more rare.Based on this,after reviewing the theories of personality traits,human capital,and entrepreneurial management,and combining existing research results,we construct a theoretical model among entrepreneurial traits,entrepreneurial human capital,and entrepreneurial performance.While revealing the mechanism of entrepreneurs' need for achievement(nAch),risk-taking propensity,and narcissism on the performance of startups in start-up period,growth period,and maturity period,we also systematically examined the unique role of education and entrepreneurial experience in this relationship.The statistical analysis results of the sample data of 209 entrepreneurs show that:(1)The nAch has a significant positive impact on the performance of start-up in all three periods,while risk-taking propensity and narcissism only have a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial performance in start-up period,but have a significant negative impact on growth and maturity period;(2)Education strengthens the positive effect of nAch on the entrepreneurial performance in all three periods,and also strengthens the positive effect of risk-taking propensity and narcissism on performance in start-up period,while weakening the risk-taking propensity's negative effect on the performance in maturity period as well as the negative effects of narcissism on the performance in growth and maturity period;(3)Entrepreneurship experience strengthens the positive effect of nAch on the performance in all three periods.It also strengthens the positive effect of risk-taking propensity and narcissism on the performance in start-up period,while weakening the negative effects of risk-taking propensity on the performance in growth and maturity period.