DELTA COUNTY, MI-When communities think about how to attract start-ups and new businesses, the conversation often begins with economics: taxes, incentives, grants, available property, infrastructure, and financing. But attracting businesses involves more than creating favorable financial conditions. It also requires understanding the motivations of the people who start businesses and the environments in which they choose to build them such as like minded entrepreneurs, sense of community, lifestyle, neighborhood aesthetics, etc..
Consider a downtown district seeking to attract new businesses. Community leaders might ask not only what financial incentives can be offered, but also who the potential entrepreneurs are, what motivates them, what resources they need, and whether they are aware that the community is actively seeking new businesses. The physical location matters, but so does the social and psychological environment surrounding that location.
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(Illustrative Only) These two were motivated to start their business but also wanted to have a healthy lifestyle connected to other entrepreneurs, community and outdoor recreation. Escanaba in Delta County is the place they want to launch. Their personality and motivations are part of the economic equation that is often lost in economic and political discussions. Using the Philosophical Principles Conscious, Subconscious, and Intentionality in Management |
Entrepreneurship is influenced by more than hard economics and finance. Applied psychology and sociology can help explain the underlying factors that influence why individuals choose to start a business, where they choose to locate, and what conditions encourage them to remain and grow. Understanding these factors can give communities a broader perspective on economic development.
(In this sense, economic development has both an economic side and a social side. My theoretical conception describes this relationship through the ideas of “I,” “ME,” and “WE”. The economic interests of self, socialized self, and shared community and goals.)
The challenge, then, is not simply to ask, “How do we attract businesses?” It is to ask a more fundamental question: “What kind of environment makes people want to start, build, and sustain a business here?” Answering that question requires looking beyond economics alone and considering the human motivations, social networks, resources, and community conditions that shape entrepreneurship.
The impact of founder personalities on startup success
- The study examined 21,187 startups to investigate whether founders’ personality traits are associated with startup success.
- Researchers analyzed Big Five personality traits across 30 dimensions using information inferred from founders’ public Twitter profiles and connected this data with Crunchbase startup information.
- Successful startup founders were more likely to demonstrate traits such as openness to adventure, a preference for novelty and variety, lower modesty, and higher activity levels.
- The researchers did not identify one single “ideal” founder personality. Instead, they identified six distinct founder personality types, suggesting that different combinations of traits can contribute to success.
- Startups with larger and more personality-diverse founding teams were more likely to succeed, suggesting that complementary personalities may be more valuable than having founders with identical characteristics.
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