Integrating Psychological Traits and Entrepreneurial Behaviours: A Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Entrepreneurial Success

Abstract

Economic conditions, resources, opportunities, personality or strategic behaviour have been usually used to explain entrepreneurial success. However, these views tend to consider the psychological traits and entrepreneurial actions as distinct factors, providing only a partial answer to the question of why some entrepreneurs turn uncertainty into successful on-going business while others don't. This conceptual review builds an integrated framework to account for sustainable entrepreneurial success as a result of the interplay among enduring psychological dispositions, malleable psychological resources (particularly psychological capital), cognitive mechanisms, observable entrepreneurial behaviours and contextual conditions. We believe that the effects of the self-efficacy, resilience, emotional intelligence and stability, proactive personality, openness to experience and calibrated risk tolerance are more likely to manifest in the processes of opportunity recognition, strategic decision-making, networking, resource mobilisation, adaptability, innovation and persistence. Entrepreneurial behaviour therefore serves as the key link between psychological potential and venture-level outcomes. The framework also acknowledges that relationships may be enhanced, diminished, or refocused by the dynamism, technological change, social capital, and institutional conditions and cultural context. Sustainable entrepreneurial success is defined as a capability to sustain the venture in terms of its survival, adaptation, innovation, responsible growth and entrepreneur's health and well-being over a period of time and not just in terms of immediate financial performance. Based on social cognitive theory, psychological capital (PsyCap) theory, entrepreneurial orientation, social capital theory, effectuation and dynamic-capabilities thinking, we offer a multilevel psychological-behavioural-contextual model and formulate testable propositions. The framework also has the advantage of bringing the study of entrepreneurship into a new perspective by focusing not only on the individual characteristics, but also on how the psychological resources are converted into entrepreneurial action and entrepreneurial success.