An Interactive Model of New Venture Initiation

IMON ABSTRACT: MODELE INTERACTIF DE NOUVELLE INITIATIVE COM MERCIALE Cet article presente un nouveau modble du processus de creation d'entreprise. Fonde sur les resultats de recherches de psychologie du comportement des entrepreneurs, ce moddele emet l'hypothese selon laquelle la decision de creation d'une nouvelle entreprise est basee sur l'interaction d'un certain nombre de facteurs parmi lesquels peuvent etre inclus: 1'esprit d'entreprise, le desir de liberte de decision, certains traits de personnalite, les variables de situation, la connaissance de soi, et le support social. Increasingly, the study of the entrepreneur is being recognized not only as a critical source of information about the various activities associated with a new venture, but also as a more general source of information about innovation and creativity within organizations. Researchers have attempted to understand, for example, why one individual initiates a new venture while others, in similar situations, do not. Profiles of the entrepreneurial personality have been developed and events precipitating the decision to initiate the new venture have been documented. ' Most existing models of new venture initiation may also apply equally to a manager's decision to find another position. Because of this weakness, such models cannot be used to identify potential entrepreneurs, nor can they assist persons to become entrepreneurs. Furthermore, they have little or no relevance to the later behavior of entrepreneurs during the various growth phases of their organizations. More recent modifications to Cooper's' model by Shapero and by Martin are somewhat more complex and include both personality characteristics and precipitating events. Yet even these remain primarily descriptive and do not satisfactorily answer the basic question underlying the new venture initiation process: Why does an individual decide to initiate a new venture? It appears that an understanding of the venture initiation process requires approaches other than those used in existing models. The purpose of this article is to describe a new model, based on literature from a number of different disciplines, which attempts to overcome some of the shortcomings of existing descriptions of new venture initiation. The model depicts the decision to initiate a new venture as arising from the interactions of a number of factors, including personality, situational variables, self perceptions, and social support. BACKGROUND Researchers have tried to answer the question of why individuals initiate new ventures by developing psychological profiles of the entrepreneur. However, research in this area has met with limited success. Many authors have sought to discover the common personality traits possessed by most entrepreneurs and have implicitly assumed that these traits may be used to identify entrepreneurs. For example, entrepreneurs have been found to be high in need for achievement, high on the internal end of the locus of control scale, and high in risk taking. Most of the traits associated with those who initiate new ventures, however, are also found in successful managers. Not many studies have compared entrepreneurs and managers or successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs, and those which have been undertaken have yielded inconsistent results. Although some writers have found differences between entrepreneurs and managers, others have found none. The inconsistencies in the findings of psychological trait studies may be associated with the methods used. Many of the studies have employed very small sample sizes and convenience samples rather than samples representative of a larger population. These characteristics potentially undermine the generalizability of the results. In addition, differing definitions of what constitutes an entrepreneur result in substantially different samples being used in the studies. …