The person-organization interplay : how an entrepreneur's personality affects organizational legitimacy

Abstract

Throughout the world, entrepreneurship is viewed as a solution for struggling economies and a major engine of economic growth. As a result, the field of entrepreneurship research has captured the interest of scholars, educators and policy makers. A substantial amount of empirical studies over the last two decades has examined the role of personality in determining entrepreneurial outcomes. Concurrently, organisational legitimacy is perceived as a necessary organisational attribute for the survival and growth of new ventures. Strategic legitimacy of nascent organisations is important in explaining organizational emergence. The current study seeks to determine if there is a relationship between an entrepreneur’s personality and the strategic legitimisation activities they employ in creating a new venture. A multiple regression model tested four factors of entrepreneurs’ personality as antecedents of strategic legitimisation activities among entrepreneurs in South Africa. The empirical findings suggest that positive extraversion traits are strong predictors of entrepreneurial activities to gain strategic legitimacy for new ventures. More interestingly, negative agreeableness traits were found to be strong antecedents of strategic legitimisation activities. Such a conclusion is important in that it provides new grounds of theoretical nature to better understand the personorganisation interplay. Copyright