THE AGREEABLE ENTREPRENEURS

Arvind Ashta

Burgundy School of Business (Groupe ESC Dijon-Bourgogne)

First Draft 2014, This Version Jan 2015

Abstract

This study looks at the trajectory of dual career entrepreneurs and their motivation for change.

It brings out organizations, personal and family related motivations for change. It is found that

few entrepreneurs are motivated by money, and the relationship with money is generally

instrumental rather than teleological. The study primarily focused on how these dual

entrepreneurs viewed themselves on the big five personality traits: extraversion varies, they

are low on neuroticism and high on open-mindedness and on conscientiousness. However,

contradicting previous research, this study finds that these entrepreneurs see themselves as

agreeable rather than disagreeable. Future research directions are presented.

Keywords: enterpereneurship, personality, behavior, motivation, money, agreeability

JEL codes: M13, L2

INTRODUCTION

It is commonly believed that managers do not need to be liked and hence they do not need to

be agreeable. It is believed that entrepreneurs fare even lower on the agreeability scale than

managers. I have found a species of entrepreneurs, all of who have been salaried employees,

many as managers, who beg to differ and consider themselves as agreeable. Some indicate that

disagreeable managers and employment options drove them to entrepreneurship to create more

agreeable ambiances.

This is an important finding. When high profile managers exit a firm with high

intangible assets, they are more likely to choose entrepreneurship than employment and this

choice is likely to hurt the source firm more (Campbell et al., 2012). Therefore, if both

agreeable and disagreeable people can be entrepreneurs, it may be more difficult to pinpoint

those who need to be retained. To retain agreeable people, it may be important for CEOs to

look for factors of disagreeability.

This finding is situated in research on the motivation of dual entrepreneurs to seek

change. We present, successively, a brief literature review to motivate the research, the

research methodology, the findings, discussion, future research directions and a conclusion.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Why do certain persons become entrepreneurs? Two streams of literature on this subject focus

either on context or on the individual traits of the entrepreneur. Contextual studies point out,

for example, that working in large enterprises or working in bureaucratic organizations

(Sørensen, 2007) and in public sector (Özcan and Reichstein, 2009) reduces the likelihood of

becoming entrepreneurs. The studies of individual traits focus on the relationship of the

individual to money or other individual characteristics of entrepreneurs. While classical

economic literature assumes that rational entrepreneurs are seeking to maximize profits,

behavioral economists have often considered that not only market imperfections but also pure

profit-seeking may not be the norm. For example, Nicolaou et al. (2008) find that genetic

factors influence sensation-seeking which influences the desire to be an entrepreneur.

Similarly, Baron (2007) suggests that cognitive and behavioral factors (such as conceptual

ability, alertness, pattern recognition, social skills, affect) may be important for determining

entrepreneurial behavior. Amit et al. (2001) find that for technological ventures, money is not

the most important primary motivation: innovation, vision, independence, and challenge were

more important. This follows in line with the observation of Inglehart (1997) that in a

postmodern society, maximizing income is no longer the top priority: self-expression and

meaningful experience are more relevant.

Zhao and Seibert (2006) used the five factor personality model and found significant

differences between entrepreneurs and managers on four personality dimensions:

entrepreneurs scored higher on Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience and lower on

Neuroticism and Agreeableness. No difference was found on extraversion. They found that

there was considerable heterogeneity for all of the personality variables except Agreeableness.

In other words, agreeability was fairly homogenously low for entrepreneurs. They called for

future research on personality focused on type of entrepreneurship and stage of

entrepreneurship.

Not all entrepreneurs are necessarily low on agreeableness. Koe Hwee Nga and

Shamuganathan (2010) find that agreeableness positively influences all dimensions of social

entrepreneurship. They concur that openness exerts a positive influence on social vision,

innovation and financial returns. Thus, their research adds to the more general research on

distinguishing between social entrepreneurs and commercial entrepreneurs for which an

abundant literature is now available (Dacin et al., 2010; Santos, 2012). Could personality traits

go further to explain these differences?

This study was not a priori contextualized in either the contextual stream or the

individual traits stream. I searched for people who have had experience of salaried jobs as well

as entrepreneurship, in any order. I found people who had all worked in salaried work before

moving to entrepreneurship. Some of them later came back to salaried work. The research

question is how these dual entrepreneurs see their career choices in perspective and how they

see themselves on these traits.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study started by looking for entrepreneurs with a dual career in employment and

entrepreneurship. Since I was not looking to measure any specific trait, but to understand why

individuals may move from one career option to another, I decided that qualitative methods of

research are better suited. Within this, the best option for me was to have the interview as

unstructured as possible. So the basic question I posed while requesting them to be

interviewed was to talk about what influenced their choice of different careers and how they

felt in these. Although I did not pose any time-limits, the unstructured monologue lasted about

10 to 30 minutes. At the end of this, I asked a few questions, including on the big five

personality traits to find out how the respondents viewed themselves on each of these on a five

point scale. Upon finding unexpected behavior I asked further questions and elicited more

information. I also asked them on how they viewed their relationship to money, since I found

that money was largely absent from their discourse.

Zhao and Seibert (2006) mention four limitations of their meta-studies of the big five

personality model. First, most of the studies are cross-sectional and not longitudinal, leaving

little space for cause and effect relationships to be determined. Second, the least studied

construct is agreeableness. Third, they were not able to analyze subsets of each variable.

Fourth, they were able to study only English journal papers. The qualitative structure of our

study has a longitudinal element since each respondent goes over his career. Second, we can

now shed a little more light on agreeableness, which is the least studied construct. Third, these

case studies point to another sub-set of entrepreneurs who consider themselves agreeable.

Fourth, although our paper is written in English, we studied mostly French dual career

entrepreneurs. Most interviews were entirely in French, although in some we switched to

English in between, notably for the last two respondents who were not of French origin.

The big five personality traits were those investigated by Zhao and Seibert (2006) and

are summarized in table 1 below. In asking for scoring on each element, the description of

each trait, what it means to be high-end and what it means to be low-end was read out. Then

the person was asked to score on it.

Insert Table 1 Here

I interviewed 11 people, including 8 men and 3 women. All were living in France, but

nine were French, one Spanish and one Moroccan. At the time of the interview, eight were

living in Dijon, two were living in Paris and one in Toulouse. Table 2 presents their details, as

indicated in the interviews, verified and completed by nine of them after I sent them an email

indicating information which may have been missed or inexact. These are their first names and

are retained to make it easy to remember and to personalize the paper, and yet retain

anonymity since these are common names. The two Stéphanes have been taken as Stéphan and

Stéphane. At the outset of the recording, all indicated that their interviews could be recorded

and used for my research purposes.

The age range varies from 32 to 64. There are two couples who are interviewed: Laure

and Jean-Marie, and Arianne and Mehdi. Each couple experienced their entrepreneurship

venture together, but they had different salaried job careers. Nine are commercial

entrepreneurs while two, Régis and Stéphan, could be considered social entrepreneurs. Their

status is indeed unique, since they are founders of a particular kind of cooperative1 in which

entrepreneurs get a salary and are thus eligible for the benefits of unemployment insurance

(dole), while other entrepreneurs typically do not get such benefits. Five out of the eleven did

not have any employees and could be considered micro-enterpreneurs.

Insert Table 2 Here

FINDINGS

1 These are called coopératives d'activité et d'emploi Delvolve N, Veyer S. 2009. De la coopérative d’activités et d’emploi à la mutuelle de travail : produire du droit pour accompagner un projet politique d’économie sociale. Coopaname: Paris, Sangiorgio J, Veyer S. Construire sur les bases d’une coopérative d’activités et d’emploi : l’émergence d’une entreprise de salariat, d’accompagnement et d’apprentissage mutuels. In Proceedings of the Actes du Colloque «Economie sociale et solidaire : nouvelles pratiques et dynamiques territoriales », Nantes. Available at.

Some of our respondents had full time employment initially and then taken to part-time

entrepreneurship and part-time salaried employment (at the time of the interview). Sebastien

had taken entrepreneurship and then added a part-time employment. Agnes had taken part-

time employment and had later added consultancy. Both currently viewed their part-time

employment as another entrepreneurship client but with a different payment structure. Others

respondents had a large number of small jobs initially till they found a steady job. Then they

left this to start their own enterprise. Our two social entrepreneurs (Régis and Stéphan) called

themselves co-entrepreneurs and insisted that, unlike commercial entrepreneurs, they had

salaries and could get unemployment benefits.

In this section we look at three aspects of the entrepreneur's motivation and

personality. First, we fetter out their motivations from their career paths as they expressed

them. Some of these are organizational factors, in the sense that the organization can exercise

some control on these. Some are purely individual traits, and some are family circumstances.

Second, we focus on their relationship to money. Third, we look to see if there are personality

traits specific to these people.

Career trajectories and motivation for change

1. Sebastien

Sebastien was a science student. At the end of his studies, after a number of small jobs, he

worked in a temporary employment agency (called interim in France). This gave him a variety

of experience. At the end of it, his employer suggested that he had a flair for marketing and

communication and that he should pursue those as he could link the technical to the

commercial.

He then attended a business school in Dijon. Thereafter, he worked as a project

manager for a new products division of a pharmaceutical company. His products did well. He

was unhappy that this division was not getting proper attention in the organization as a whole.

He was then recruited by a competitor to be the marketing director in Paris, far from

his family. Again, he increased the sales and did very well. However, his career was limited

since the CEO's daughter was his boss. The CEO considered that Sebastien had

entrepreneurial skills.

He therefore decided to be a consultant and came back to Dijon. After some time, he

decided to supplement his consultancy with part-time employment to enable him to reduce

risk. He considers that both his consultancy work and his part-time employment are wonderful

challenges and he enjoys his work.

He considers himself a micro-entrepreneur. He does not have any employees. Today,

he is earning more than he ever did in his previous employment and is saving to start his own

pharmaceutical venture.

2. Agnes

Agnes studied in a business school, specializing in management control. She took her first job

because she found the future boss charismatic and she liked the challenge of creating a

management control system. Once she had set it up she was given diverse jobs, including

setting up the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) for the Human Resource Module.

She was then hired by a MIS firm, reporting to another charismatic manager, who

became her idol. She then implemented ERP for different companies. She enjoyed the job

variety, but found that there was a non-alignment of objectives. Being a mother, she preferred

being in Paris and not on field trips, but the employer earned more when she was on field trips

and he wanted to extend her stays in the field.

When her husband got transferred to Spain, she stopped work for a few years and

learnt creative activities like art and sculpture. She then separated from her husband and came

back to Dijon to raise her three children. She started looking for part-time work.

She immediately found part-time employment and worked with one person as a

counsellor for students and alumni. Although there was a lot of variety and every year she

took on new things, at a certain point she realized that free advice has its limits. She therefore

studied psychology part-time and later took training to be a coach.

Today, she has several customers (training) in addition to her part-time work. Also, the

university where she was teaching as adjunct faculty has decided to give her a long-term

contract. She has therefore decided to stop her part-time work with the alumni association

(after 20 years) and focus on consultancy and teaching.

She considers herself a micro-entrepreneur. She does not have any employees. Today,

she is earning more than she ever did in her previous employment.

3. Laure

Laure had studied international commerce and then switched to languages. Her first job was in

export-import, in the administrative logistics of a multi-national company with over a 100

employees. She enjoyed the work, but had to leave it when her husband, who was a manager

in a retail supermarket chain, was transferred.

In the new region, Laure found it difficult to find a work related to her qualifications

and experience and finally took a part-time job of being a secretary-cum-accounting assistant

to a wine-shop owner, who had two employees. She also did many other things (receiving

customers, organizing tasting), when required. At one time, she found another parallel job for

six months to replace an accountant who was on maternity leave. This was a firm of 20

employees.

Since she had acquired accounting and administration skills, she and her husband

started thinking of starting their own supermarket and being their own bosses. The fact that no

one in their families (parents, uncles, aunts) had been salaried employees, since they were all

in the professions, played a part in their decision.

She and her husband took special training with his supermarket chain for six months,

leaving their little children with the grandparents. It then took them a year to

construct/renovate their eco-supermarket in the center of a small city in Burgundy. They took

a large loan for the construction and working capital.

The enterprise was a franchise. The work rhythm of the entrepreneurship was

overwhelming. They would work 18 hour days (from 4 AM) practically seven days a week.

They had 11 people working for them, some of who were part-time. So, it was a small

enterprise. The 11 people were required because the building was huge and because the teams

had to be rotated. Their motivation to succeed was enormous, not only because it was their

firm, but also because 11 other people depended on them.

It finally did not work out. The market-study which had been sold to them was not

realizable. It did not take into account that the city was old and declining and that shops were

closing one after the other, and that as people aged, they passed away, further reducing the

market size. The banker provided them an early warning after two months, but it took them six

months to admit that this was true, and another few months to hand the enterprise to the

supermarket chain.

Fortunately, the supermarket chain took over everything, including the loan. They

therefore lost only a little in terms of money.

Nevertheless, she wanted to start another venture with her husband, in making bread,

but the idea did not appeal to him. At the same time, she would not like to take such a risk a

second time, in view of the time and effort made and in view of the fact that the financial risk

could be huge. Also, they had practically not seen their children in this time. So, after a long

period of rest, they decided to go back to salaried employment. It was difficult to get a job

because it was difficult, during an interview, to talk about the failure as head of an enterprise,

even though she had learnt a lot and gained from the experience.

She is now working for an enterprise with about 50 employees. But it's very difficult to

pass from being the head of an enterprise to work as a salaried employee. Notably, one is

tempted to change many things, but the decision is in someone else's hands.

4. Jean-Marie

After studies in commerce, Jean-Marie worked as an educator for minors. However, de did not

find the work atmosphere satisfying and therefore he stopped.

He then started work as a replacement for the managers of a chain of small

supermarkets. After a year, he left as he did not find any progress in his career. He then found

a job to work as the executive in charge of a section of a larger supermarket. He took on

responsibilities for bigger and bigger sections and with time, he was heading an entire sector.

Then the chain created a hard-discount shop and he was given the direction of this.

Then, with Laure, they thought of starting their own supermarket. His prime

motivation for change was that he had nothing more to learn in the existing position. Once he

had learnt everything from a position, he needed new positions and progress. He needed both

rotation and progress within the enterprise or within the group. For this, he applied for posts.

Now, he had reached a level where he has to start on his own.

They received training and they started. What he liked was the idea of creating the

project, creating something out of nothing, in terms of the building, in terms of the enterprise

and in terms of the organization of people. He also liked the independence and the flexibility.

Since he was already working a lot before, he did not find that he had to work particularly

much more to be an entrepreneur.

The details of the enterprise and the failure have already been provided in Laure's

brief. Jean-Marie also remarked that the turnover indicated in the market research report was

not attained by the people who followed and managed the shop for the supermarket chain.

Thereafter, they had to close it.

They continued to look for entrepreneurial opportunities, but none came their way.

They then decided to focus on the family and the children who were not getting due attention,

so they moved back to Dijon and this decision to focus on one area, led to a further reduction

in opportunities.

Jean-Marie considered that it was not easy to find a salaried job since employers are

wary of hiring people who have been entrepreneurs. This is because the CEOs don't like

people who know management, finance and who understand what is really happening in their

enterprise. They prefer to have fresh graduates who they can manipulate.

Jean-Marie is happy that he has now found work, but is not as happy with the work-

content when he compares it to his stint as an entrepreneur. He would be ready to become an

entrepreneur again.

5. David

David comes from a modest background where neither of his parents attended high school.

Their incomes were limited but they provided a lot of love to their children. At the same time,

David learnt the value of work since he worked every weekend since the age of 16. The

parents insisted that their children invest in education because it opened possibilities to do

what one wanted. So David wend to Business School and finished a Master's degree.

He had always wanted to be an entrepreneur, influenced by a book by the founder of

Publicis, and at business school he met sons of entrepreneurs and became friends. He asked to

meet their parents to learn how their life was managed.

His salaried career was in one group, where the firm he worked with got purchased by

a larger Anglo-Saxon firm and he also later got involved in other acquisitions. When he started

in 2001, they were 25 employees in a small French company and when he left seven years

later, they were 1500 employees in an anglo-saxon group. His career was excellent because he

was able to organize work and produce excellent results in getting and retaining customers.

David's division was often the largest earner of the group. He worked seven years full

time. He viewed himself as an entrepreneur inside a firm. He felt the exponential growth of the

firm was not sustainable and it was this difference in perspective which finally led to his

separation with the firm. In fact, the pension fund and other shareholders wanted continued

high growth rates, which he considered unrealizable. But they went ahead with this plan, and

when it didn't materialize David had to fire people which he found totally inconsistent with his

view on how an entrepreneur manages a firm.

He wanted to start his own company. But since the clientele of his employers depended

on him (he had taken care that the customers introduce clauses in the contracts where the

contract would be suspended if David leaves), they could not let him go, and they kept him

part-time for three years. This part-time work allowed him to get regular income, and so the

enterprises which he started did not have to pay him any salary. As a result, he could develop

them.

Today, after six years of being an entrepreneur, he has five firms with a total of 50

employees. He often had to take loans from banks to buy these firms. Two of these could be

considered micro in the sense of having less than ten employees, but they are, rather, very

small enterprises. His earnings are now as high as they were in his last full-time employment.

However, if he had continued working in the large company, he would have been earning

many times more by now.

6. Damien

Damien was not a great student in school. But after high-school, he realized that he wanted to

be a businessman and not a sportsman or a musician. His role-model was his grandfather who

had been a chartered accountant. His dream was to rise to work on the top floor of a high-rise

building owned by a large company.

So he went to business school and worked hard to get into a good business school.

Here he got an apprenticeship with a big construction group who, later, hired him once his

studies were over. He worked with them for four years. At the end of a year, he got the

opportunity to take on the job of a development manager because the previous one had not met

his targets. He met them by 130 percent. However, when he asked for a raise and a car, they

gave him a very small raise and he felt disgusted. He then realized that he was just a peon in

the system and even if he reached the next to top floor, he would remain a peon.

So, he decided to start his own business. He had already started buying and selling

sports cars, after using them. He had found that the difference in price allowed him to use the

car for fee, and even make a profit. So, after four years of working, he started this as a

business with a partner.

He had a year's salary saved. In addition, for a few months he had continued working

till they could find a replacement. They had to take bank-loans with personal guarantees

(including guarantees by their parents) to buy the cars. They made a lot of money but decided

to separate since they had different rhythms of work and different ambitions.

He next started a real-estate consultancy in addition to his own car dealership. His real

estate consultancy lasted about two years, mainly for a Swiss developer.

In the meantime he met an independent financial assets consultant who managed

private wealth of individuals. This gentleman explained his work to Damien, who then

decided this was the ideal career for him. There was a great demand for this activity since

banks, who used to do this, now focused only on the very rich and also because banks rotated

their personnel and so there was no relationship.

Since independent financial assets consultants are part of a large network, they get

transaction costs advantages related to their increased countervailing power. They are

therefore competitive. They charge a fixed fee to their clients and get a percentage of the

transaction cost. They also work as a network marketing model and therefore develop other

such consultants. Today, Damien is at the head of 50 such consultants but he has no

employees.

He finds this entrepreneurship model very satisfying since it gives him all the

independence, strategy making and decision making that he likes, without the constraints of a

salaried job. At the same time, it allows him to help people.

7. Régis

Régis started his first job at the age of 17 sorting letters at the post office. He found it very

difficult relating to and working with people. He took up architectural studies at the age of 20

to 25. But since he got a girlfriend, his father asked him to leave and he had to earn to look

after himself. He alternated periods of employment with periods of dole which allowed him to

study. He never took the final exam of the diploma, but became the employee of an architect.

In 1977, after the illness of his first child, he and his wife decided to leave polluted

Paris for a better environment in the South. It was difficult finding work since no one is

waiting for you in a new region.

He also had to take psychoanalysis, and this made it difficult to keep the rendezvous as

a salaried employee. So he switched from being a salaried to an independent status to be able

to have the independence to visit his analyst. At the same time, the municipality wanted some

work done by an independent professional so that they would not have any social security

charges to pay. So, he took this on. During this period, he sub-contracted work from two other

people, but unfortunately did not get any direct retail clients. This nine year period of

psychoanalysis was anxiety-laden, but with a lot of independence.

He later became an independent commercial agent selling encyclopedias. But he could

not sell any. He bought one though. It allowed him to meet a lot of people. His wife supported

him financially when required. He then became an independent seller of individual houses on

a commission basis. It was again an anxiety laden period: if you don't sell, you don't eat.

He then became the commercial agent for an architect firm which also constructed

houses. Finally, he found something which he enjoyed because he was involved in designing

the houses with his clients and making it happen. He sold about 1.5 houses per month.

However, he realized that the partners of the firm made many mistakes in conceiving the

house which would eat up into their gross margins, and their overdraft grew.

In 1991, he worked briefly for an architecture firm in Paris who wanted to use his

passion for computer aided design. He would return to Bezier for the weekends. This was not

sustainable and he left to get back to his family.

He then worked with an architect in Bezier for four years, a period in which he

separated from his wife. He also stopped smoking. He started visiting Paris. His boss let him

go since he knew Régis wanted to get back to Paris. So, he was back on the dole.

He found work in Paris in architectural programming, again based on his knowledge of

software. But his boss used to smoke and this used to upset him, an ex-smoker. Moreover, he

felt that she cheated the public markets and he was scared that one day she would be caught

and place the blame on him.

In the period from 1999 to 2010, many people in his family, including his parents,

passed away and Régis took a lot of time to be with them and look after them. He also found

time to do volunteer work and started taking interest in civil movements. This included things

like starting an Association for eco-friendly architecture using the methodology of a Dutch

Benedictine monk, starting a Local Exchange System in the North-West of Paris, and

organizing an anti-nuclear movement. He was actually paid a salary for the latter for

organizing one event.

He also took psychoanalysis for another five years and finally discovered that he had

had untreated infantile depression which had actually influenced his whole life as he sought to

deal with it.

At the same time, he created a cooperative of activity and employment which is a

cooperative of entrepreneurs who are paid a salary. As the manager of this cooperative and as

an entrepreneur within it, Régis gets a salary. It is a right mix of entrepreneurship and salary

for him.

8. Stéphan

Stéphan comes from a modest family, where his father nevertheless became a bureaucrat at the

end of his career. He grew up in a milieu which talked about collective welfare. He studied

political science. He had an initial experience in a group of sociology and political science and

may have done a Ph.D. but abandoned it after his military service.

He found it difficult to find regular work and for a year and a half, he had to have a

large number of small jobs, some salaried, some as an independent where he used a portage2

company to invoice and pay him a salary. So, in a way he was already an entrepreneur, he

feels.

Stéphan finally found work in a small marketing consultancy. He stayed there for two

years. He left because he felt there was a lot of violence involved in being a salaried

employee. 'It was a cabinet of scoundrels' whose work he considered as perpetuating fraud. He

finds that he shares this anxiety and despair with many people in the cooperative he co-

founded later. It was destructive. So he left and was on the dole for eight months, looking for

work.

Finally, Stéphan got a job in a large American consultancy, the temple of capitalism,

where he worked for five years. It was politically opposed to his values, but he learnt a lot

from interesting work and interesting people. In this leading consultancy, he took part in

syndicate activity and was the first delegate of personnel since 1964. It was not comfortable

2 Portage firms use a shared enterprise model where professionals, usually consultants, use the enterprise to bill in its name and pay them a salary, so that they can contribute to and avail of social security benefits. The entrepreneurship keeps a small percentage of the turnover for its use.

but it was interesting. His role in the syndicate taught him that people needed being

accompanied.

When he got tired of the consultancy firm, he co-created the adventure of a cooperative

of activity and employment. He believed in the cooperative model as an alternative economy

which he now wanted to translate into practice. He wanted to create something related to

accompaniment. Coincidentally, he met Elisabeth Bost in Lyon who had created the first

Cooperative of Activity and Employment and wanted to create one in Paris. So, they were a

small group of people who wanted to create something as a common project.

Stéphan was the managing director at the time of his interview, but his mandate was

about to end in six months. He is a salaried entrepreneur in this cooperative.

9. Stéphane

Stéphane came from a milieu of entrepreneurs (his maternal grand-father and his father).

He went to a business school and specialized in audit and accounting. During his

studies, he had done a large number of jobs. He had always liked trading. One of his small

jobs had allowed him to buy and sell and he had made a lot of money. Also, he had taken a

gap year to work in a small firm to get an overview of all parts of an enterprise.

After a specialization in auditing, it was normal for him to join one of the big four

audit firms. He worked there for four years. However, after four years, during his annual

interview, he realized that the firm has a lot of plans for him, but that the finances did not

follow the same evolution. It was also a moment, where he had paid off his student loans. As a

result, he no longer had any expenses. These two elements, as well as the family background,

made him feel that he should now start up his own enterprise.

He wanted to start a financial information system: a MIS which would help financial

managers to take decisions. However, people wanted him more to manage their information

park. So, initially he had to do this, hoping that later he would be able to use their park to

develop the MIS. He employed information engineers.

A few consultancy assignments in the beginning, one for his old employer, and one for

the city of Toulouse, paid enough on a part-time basis for him to pay the software engineers,

till the enterprise developed. However, he did not develop the consultancy activity because

this was not what he wanted to do: otherwise he would have stayed with the large audit firm.

Today, after 14 years as an entrepreneur, he is making more money than he was at the

big auditing firm and probably more than he would have if he had stayed on in that firm for

another 14 years. He is thinking of transforming his private limited company to a public

company.

He feels that being an entrepreneur is different from being salaried because he now no

longer looks at the difference between the effort and the financial returns on effort. He is more

interested in the success of the enterprise.

10. Ariane

Ariane came from a middle-class family of Spanish entrepreneurs. Her mother was a

hairdresser, her father repaired windows. She studies political science and philosophy.

However, she did not want to work in these fields. She has also studied music, art and the law

relating to women. She travelled from Spain to Italy for a part of her studies.

During her studies, she had lots of little jobs to earn money, including cleaning hotel

rooms, waitressing. She was therefore independent of her parents since the end of high school.

Invariably, she was the one who left the jobs that she did get. Most of her jobs were not

satisfying, except playing with an orchestra, but she didn't do so many of these. She was 31 or

32 when she got her first full time tenured position as a waitress in Paris. She left that to go on

a trip with her husband, Mehdi, to Thailand to work in an NGO who only paid for their

upkeep. They came back owing to death of Mehdi's mother.

Most of her jobs were salaried, but at times they were more entrepreneurial, such as

giving private lessons for music. There were vast periods where she did not work, notably two

years taken off for maternity leave back in Spain, before she decided to create her enterprise

with Mehdi.

At 34, they decided to create an enterprise of photo and video. They had a child and

wanted to earn money for him, and since Mehdi was good at photography and she liked his

photography. At times, he was paid for photographing marriages. Some asked him to make a

video also. They were encouraged by the demand and encouragement of family and friends.

They started a webpage in France and Spain. They work in both countries. So, even if

they spend money on travelling, they want to get experience. If there is a wedding in Spain or

in France, they go there. They have a home in both places.

She is happy, stressed but not fearful. She would like to do other videos (not only

marriage). Her path was chaotic but she uses all this in the videos that she creates. She is

happiest in this entrepreneurial job, because it's magic to see through a camera what she

doesn't see in reality. 'One can view the beauty of people and of moments'.

11. Mehdi

Mehdi had the equivalent of a bachelor's technical degree in Commerce. He had taken a

student loan during this period. Since the age of 24 to about 34, he worked in large enterprises.

His first employer was a large French retail firm in photography and computers. Mehdi

was interested in information systems and at that time, this enterprise was avant-garde. It was

gratifying. He received promotions.

He then joined the world leader in software as a sales engineer. He was attracted by the

prestige of this enterprise, the complexity of the market and exigencies of the tasks. It was an

increase in competencies. He stayed a year.

There were many reasons for leaving. First, he had started thinking that photography

was a powerful medium of personal expression. Second, he met Ariane, who became his

partner, and who had a different philosophy of life which opened his eyes to some aspects.

Third, he had the opportunity to work with a friend who had a Communication Agency and

who could let him work freelance as a photographer. The friend in Paris had shown me that

photography can be sold.

Nevertheless, there was a big break and a moment of flux. They went to Thailand

where they worked as volunteers with food and lodging provided. Then came back and stayed

with Ariane's parents, living off family solidarity. They had a child during this period. These

two years can be considered a gestation period. It was difficult to find a job as a salaried

employee in photography, although he did try.

He started the entrepreneurial venture at the age of 36. He considers it as a meaningful

project. He had enjoyed working with large firms but there were thousands of employees and

it had lost meaning.

He enjoys what he is doing now. He earns much less but he is happy, because he has

purpose. Today, with internet, you have to inject your personality in the business. This feeling

he didn't have in the large global enterprises. He was part of a group, it was nice. He

understood corporate culture. But now it is their own brand reflecting their own values, and

their own work from A to Z.

As a salaried employee, he had objectives given by the manager and it was easy. Now

that it's for themselves, it's not easy. It's more difficult. Many objectives are qualitative.

We can conclude this sub-section by summarizing the reasons for change. Table 3

indicates the major motivations for change and classifies them as Work related, personal and

family oriented. The most common work related reason was that the organization was not

permitting the person to evolve in terms of new learning and developing new competencies.

The most common personal reasons for change were financial rewards and the need to create.

The most important family reasons were for constraints such as spouse's transfers, child's

health or parental leave.

Insert Table 3 Here

Relationship with money

Classical economic theory would warrant that entrepreneurs would be profit oriented and

entrepreneurship research usually conforms to this (Cohen et al., 2008). However, we have

already pointed out that the entrepreneurial literature has shown that entrepreneurs in high

technology industry do not consider money as their primary motivation (Amit et al., 2001).

Hessels et al. (2008) study three different motivations: independence, necessity and wealth

increasing and observe that in developing countries necessity is the primary entrepreneurial

motivation while in developed countries it is independence. Cassar (2007) finds that

independence, self-realization and financial success (in that order) are the three main

motivators of entrepreneurs as well as non-entrepreneurs. His analyses leads him to conclude

that the primary motivation of entrepreneurs is the classical financial motivation. Would dual

entrepreneurs in France be more like the classical entrepreneur seeking profits or would they

too have other ambitions?

The discourses of the respondents did not bring out any focus on financial rewards. This could

be for many reasons, at least some of could be specific to French culture. I focused on this

aspect by asking each entrepreneur on how he viewed his relationship with money. The

following are the responses they provided, translated and paraphrased to make proper

sentences.

Sébastien: I want to live correctly and want my family to live better. But for me an

entrepreneur is not looking for money. All my friends who are entrepreneurs are motivated by

being master of their destinies. Money is not my principal motor. The motor is liberty,

creation, team spirit, federate people to create a project.

Agnes: Money doesn't motivate me as long as I earn a minimum for my needs. I'm

looking for doing things which I like, with people I want to be with. I like autonomy, my

values. I don't do all this to earn money, even if I'm earning well today.

Laure: I should have sufficient to live and to have a minimum standard of life to raise

the family. I would like to earn a lot. But I don't see this happening. When we were in the

entrepreneurship also, we paid ourselves as little as we needed. We had the objective of

making money. Normally, it should have worked. Most of our colleagues who took a shop

usually did well. Ours is a rare case. Normally, one earns very well. We had the project of

making it work and starting a second. We had never thought of stopping like this.

Jean-Marie: Money is not what motivates. It is the actualization of one self. Bus self-

actualization is not based on the money that one brings in. At least not for me. I don't have a

relation with money. I have enough.

David: Today, I could pay myself more. But I want to develop. So, I don't want to take

out too much. I want to live well but I decide what is considered as good living. When I was a

kid, we didn't have money like I got early in my career. At 24-25, my salary was more than

that of my two parents together. So, I was already ahead of my financial dreams. I don't have

excessive needs. I don't want to spend recklessly. I look for profits for the legal entity, but it's

not the same as searching for my physical being. Collaborators depend on me. For me the

cultural rewards are much more important. Today, I'm part of the MEDEF (a Federation of

Entrepreneurs) and I'm elected to a committee where I'm working on writing guides. The

committee includes bankers, accountants, lawyers and managers of large firms. The latter are

jealous of me because I was able to become an entrepreneur while they couldn't take the

plunge.

Damien: I have no taboo with respect to money. Many people think money is dirty or

that it doesn't bring happiness. But it doesn't bring unhappiness either. It’s the person you

want to be, your dreams of lifestyle. If you get this, its happiness. This happiness, without

money, is difficult. Even if you want to help others, you need money. Earning money is a

means to satisfy all your personal ambitions and projects. I have many and therefore need lots

of money.

Régis: It is like in the Local Exchange System: Everyone has something to exchange.

The value of the thing exchanged is subjective, but everyone has something different to

exchange. For me, everyone should earn the same amount of money. At a certain point, after a

fire destroyed all my possessions except the books on Tao and the work by the Benedictine

monk on the proportional system of architecture, I decided it was a sign and money should no

longer be the prime motivator in my choice of work.

Stéphan: I come from a world where money is not dirty but we don't talk about money.

When I started my political studies, I was totally unaware of finance and economy. It was a

question of family culture. To my children, I talk a lot about economics. The children at four

years want to know if the cash we give to a cashier in the supermarket: is it for her or not for

her? Why do we find different objects in different countries? When I grew up, these things

would have interested me, but were never talked about. In our cooperative, it’s a project of

living well. We pay ourselves enough to live, but not much. It is sufficient for me to live. If I

need more, I can ask for it, I'm sure they will give more. But I don't need it.

Stéphane: It's good. I like to get money to respond to my needs and those of my family.

I don't want to be multi-millionaire. I would like a bit more, but it's not my objective to be a

millionaire.

Ariane: My relationship with money is complicated. I didn't care so much for it, even

though I know I should now that I have a family. But I do worry at times. However, I don't

want to pursue money. Mehdi has to be the one who thinks about money. This allows me to be

more creative.

Mehdi: It is difficult. There is fear and attractiveness. It is a mystery. I don't know how

to express it. I read a lot of stuff before leading this project. There is a mindset to have a

model, but it is abstract. We are trying to implement it. I think my relationship with money is

complex. There is a mindset to make it part of your life as a tool and not an end, but I'm not

yet seeing the big picture.

The above discussion shows that money is one motivator for entrepreneurs, but most of

them view it as a tool rather than an objective. A minimum level of comfort is desired. The

successful entrepreneurs, social or commercial, like to be careful to use it as a tool to develop

their enterprises rather than to pay themselves well. Since growth of the enterprise would

mean increase in the value of the enterprise, which usually goes to the entrepreneur, this can

also be considered as a financial motivation. However, the latter would not be true in the case

of Régis and Stéphan since they started cooperatives and they would not get any capital gains

from the development of the enterprise.

Big five personality variables

The following table 4 indicates the self-assessment of the respondents on the big five

personality variables. At times, the individuals had difficulty providing scores on themselves

because they felt that within the description of the variable they had some qualities and not

others, at times because they felt they had evolved during the careers. The scores reported

below were therefore compromises as accepted by them.

Insert Table 4 Here

The table indicates that our dual career entrepreneurs are moderate on extraversion, but

it varies the most. Thus, we can say that entrepreneurs are not necessarily extravert or

introvert. Some entrepreneurs, who considered themselves low on extraversion, such as Laure

and Ariane, felt their partner made up for them. However, surprisingly the partner, Jean-Marie,

gave himself as low a score as Laure, while Mehdi considered himself only moderately higher

than Ariane. Stéphan distinguished between being introvert but playing the role of an extravert

because that is what is professionally expected. These results tend to confirm the observation

of Zhao and Seibert (2006) that there is no relationship between extraversion and

entrepreneurship, although they suggest that a positive impact may come out in other studies.

As expected, they are low on neuroticism, high on openness and high on

Conscientiousness. However, some assessed themselves high on neuroticism (more than 3 on

5). Mehdi was high on neuroticism but he considered this to be recent owing tnot o the major

changes in life that have come too quickly for him (meeting Ariane, leaving his steady career,

becoming a father, starting a business, living in two countries, besides his mother's passing

away). He thinks he has a hard time to adapt. Arianne was also slightly higher than the median

value of 3. The samples's neuroticism is an average of 2.41, lower than the median value of 3.

However, unexpectedly, we find that our entrepreneurs are high on agreeability.

Moreover, the variability, is fairly low for agreeability. Thus the significant counter-

expectation that we find is that instead of being homogenously disagreeable as expected from

the literature, we find that dual career entrepreneurs are homogenously agreeable. None of the

entrepreneurs considered themselves disagreeable (less than the median value of 3).

There are various possible explanations for this finding. First, it is based on a small

sample of case studies and hence the result may be due to sampling error. But it nevertheless

questions the dominant theory, and this is a role of case studies: to look for and study a wide

variety of possible exceptions to the rule, laying a basis for further quantitative research.

Second, the results may be because we asked entrepreneurs what they thought about

themselves and this may not coincide with what we would find with a psychometric test or

what others may think about them. However, for the other four personality variables we find

evidence that entrepreneurs' self-assessment seems to be similar to expectations with the

literature, and a priori there is no reason, therefore to feel that on this variable, the

entrepreneurs are less objective.

To understand why we may have this unexpected result on agreeable entrepreneurs of

the dual career path kind, our structured questionnaire asked for possible reasons why any

possible result that could be different from expectation, and these answers on agreeability are

reproduced below.

Sebastien: My experience of managers shows me that for long term projects, it is

important for the team to feel good and to have good relations. The managers and CEOs who

are disagreeable have a short term or medium term vision. In fact, such managers often stay

for a short time and move on upwards elsewhere. The long term managers are less

disagreeable. For SMEs, turnover is not good, and it is important to retain people. If we want

to create something long term and if we want the employees to stay and be happy, we need to

create a good ambiance.

Agnes: I don't manage people directly. I don't have any teams to manage. In my part-

time work, since I work with one person in an isolated work, we have created links and it is

not possible otherwise.

Laure: We were in a small family enterprise. We all knew each other. The work

required everyone to participate. It is not by shouting that things get done.

Jean-Marie: All the managers are not like that. And you don't go further with people

by being disagreeable. I am persuaded of this. So, it's simply not my style of management and

it doesn't correspond to my personality, which is a happy coincidence.

David: Maybe my personality is different. I have always considered that everyone,

even the lowest assistant should be respected. I have always said hello to everyone. Even if

you say no, you can say with a smile. Legitimacy is obtained. You have to be credible and

legitimate. If you are obliged to shout, you are not legitimate. I am naturally positive,

enthusiast and smiling. I know that a lot of managers and entrepreneurs are very cold except

when they are with other entrepreneurs. But in my team, I have been open. All employees have

a share in the profits. Some have even bought shares in their enterprises. This also helps.

There is a great team ambiance. We celebrate everybody's birthdays. Also, anglo-saxon

managers look at life in a very short-term perspective. So they can afford to be disagreeable. I

am looking for a long-term perspective and disagreeability cannot work. I look after my

enterprises like a good father of a family. I don't intend to sell them in five years. I have also

helped one of my employees start her own business by sub-contracting some work to her till

she stands on her two feet.

Damien: I am agreeable because it is my profound nature. I like harmonious relations

with people. My experience has taught me that I don't like people who say things but don't do

them. Just like I felt like a peon and not recognized, I don't want to do that to others. For

example, I found that managers just changed the writing style of my reports. Even if the idea

and style were finally very similar, some details were changed. So, why don't they do it

themselves in the first place? So, I didn't like this kind of subordinate relationship. It's better

to have smiling people with whom I work. It's true I was more disagreeable when I was

salaried and had subordinates, and that I don't have subordinates today, but I choose not to

have employees. Today, I could take salaried people and earn more, but it's not a win-win

situation. I would like my collaborators to win too. So, I prefer independent relations with sub-

contractors where they earn more.

Régis: The enterprise does not belong to its manager or creator. What I liked in the

cooperative is to have a relation with employees and salaried as an equal. It is like in the

Local Exchange System, everyone has something to exchange. The value of the thing

exchanged is subjective, but everyone has something different to exchange. For me, everyone

should earn the same amount of money. Each could have different interests but

complementary. So if I had created a (commercial) enterprise with 87 salaries today, but that

I could sell everything, it would mean inequality. I think if there was no equality, I would not

be interested. I could also complain of this situation and could feel like a victim, indirectly.

Stéphan: A cooperative, notably one which is open, like the one which we have created

which keeps receiving new people, cannot work without a human relationship of wanting to do

good, confidence and trust. At least, the leaders have to show this way by being agreeable and

positive.

Stéphane: I think maybe because I want to be a salesman. One cannot be a good

salesman if one is not agreeable. I sell all the time, inside and outside the enterprise. I have to

sell my ideas, my projects as well as my employees' competencies.

Ariane: I have a hard time to say no. I find it difficult. I just want to do a job to please

people. I give all the time, all the force. I'm not saying no.

Mehdi: I have a tendency to be diplomatic. I search a ground of common interest. It

may be contradictory to entrepreneurship to further the project. It’s a character trait, it’s a

tendency in photography to fade in. It’s a weakness in some areas, but in my daily job it’s a

strength.

Table 5 regroups these explanations in three kinds of explanations: instrumental,

personal and teleological. The instrumental explanations are the ones which consider

agreeabilty as important to attaining ends. The teleological explanations are the ones which

consider that agreeability is an end in itself. The personal explanations are ones of

powerlessness where the person considers it as part of his personality.

Insert Table 5 Here

It is noted that eight people have an instrumental view while three do not. Five people

have a personality view and six people have a teleological view.

DISCUSSION

What drives people to leave salaried jobs and start entrepreneurial ventures? We find that the

driving factor was that in salaried work, most of these people were not happy with either their

learning curve and evolution, their financial remuneration, the organizational values or their

job conditions. Thus, employers may need to do more on these aspects to create a stimulating

environment for such educated employees. Our sample contains mostly people who have

studied 5 years after high school.

Life circumstances also influenced career, notably for women. Agnes followed her

husband and did not work in Spain. Later, on separation, she looked for part-time work

because she wanted to have time for her children. It was only after the children had grown up,

that she started looking at her professional options. Laure followed her husband and had to

take a less interesting salaried position and later joined him in starting their entrepreneurship

venture. Ariane went on maternity leave and later joined her husband, Mehdi, in a new

entrepreneurial venture based on his skills. Perhaps, Mehdi was the only man who chose to

take paternity leave for a long time in bringing up his child.

Finally, personal traits of the entrepreneur seem to be important. Only three of them

mentioned financial rewards or the impending need to create. For each one the driver could be

something personal, different from others.

A deeper probe confirmed that money is not a primary motivator for these micro-

entrepreneurs and is largely absent in their un-structured discourse. Only on asking why, do

they explain that they are looking for autonomy and liberty to do what they want, rather than

just money. Money is more an instrument rather than an objective. This therefore contradicts

the rationality attributed to profit maximization by the classical economics literature and,

instead, concurs with behavioral economics and with the entrepreneurship literature.

Our respondents are extravert and introvert. This confirms the Zhao and Seibert (2006)

study which indicates that extraversion does not differentiate managers and entrepreneurs.

On three of the other four indicators where Zhao and Seibert found entrepreneurs were

different from managers, we find similar results. Our respondents are low on neuroticism, high

on conscientiousness and on openness to experience. These were the three variables with

heterogeneity in Zhao and Seibert's study and where we could have possibly found different

results for our small sample, but we did not. However, we did find that they were very

homogenous on openness to experience.

What was noticeable different was that they consider themselves as agreeable. It is

noted that Zhao and Seibert (2006) find not only that entrepreneurs are less agreeable than

managers, but that this disagreeability is a fairly homogenous trait. Therefore, our findings are

counter-intuitive and unexpected.

The explanations provided by the respondents (for their agreeability) suggest that some

consider agreeability as instrumental for success, others consider it an end in itself, and some

just consider it as part of their personality. There is an overlap as some may consider more

than one aspect of agreeability. However, we do find entrepreneurs who were unhappy with

the conflictual nature of salaried employment and tried to ensure that in their enterprises this

would not happen. Their strategies have been different including: not having employees,

creating networks of independents rather than employees, having participation bonuses and

creating cooperatives with equals.

Therefore, although our case studies are not sufficiently numerous to conclude, they

point out that entrepreneurs of a certain kind, may be agreeable.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

This study is based on a small sample of case studies. Future research needs to validate this for

larger sets of entrepreneurs. However, since the study seems to validate many, but not all, of

classical research in entrepreneurship, the exceptions should be taken to pave the way for

future research.

This study is based on subjective self-declared agreeability. Future research needs to

validate this by a more rigorous psychometrics and by the viewpoints of subordinates,

colleagues and superiors. If self-declared agreeability is not the same as the results of

psychometric testing, then another question would arise as to why its only on this one trait (out

of five), that self-declaration and psycho-testing point out differences.

Some interesting questions require delving deeper into the area. Can experiences of

disagreeability in work, force people to become entrepreneurs? David did not enjoy firing

people. Damien found he was more disagreeable while working than as an entrepreneur and

prefers not to have salaried employees to let them win more. He doesn't want people to go

through the pain he felt. So, can a desire to eliminate disagreeability influence the kind of

entrepreneur one wants to become? Note that David has many employees, Damien has none.

The relationship between the importance of money to the entrepreneur and his ability

to scaling up can also be explored.

An interesting observation came from the interviews of David and Stéphan, which

could also be developed by future researchers. David is a successful commercial entrepreneur,

but what he really values is that being an entrepreneur he can take part in privileged groups in

society, where he can be useful. Stéphan feels that being an entrepreneur would never have

been enough for him. He is interested in implementing and testing his political ideas. Two

very different ideas of participating in society: an entrepreneur who bases his satisfaction on

being included, based on his experience, in privileged clubs of society and a social

entrepreneur who bases his satisfaction on being able to experiment his beliefs on society.

Further research and validation of this could be material in the research on distinguishing

social entrepreneurs from commercial entrepreneurs.

CONCLUSION

This study has tracked the motivation of dual entrepreneurs for change, both from one salaried

job to another and from salaried to entrepreneurship. While money may be an important

objective to a limited number of entrepreneurs, many of them create enterprises owing to need

for evolution in terms of learning and additional competencies as well as flexibility. These

findings contradict the classical assumption that entrepreneurs are strictly profit-seeking and

extend the exceptions found by Amit et al (2000) in the technology ventures to dual

entrepreneurs. Employers should therefore be careful to provide stimulating experiences.

We also find that money is viewed more as a tool rather than an objective. Social

utility (including to the family) seems to be very important.

This study of dual-career entrepreneurs, based on self-declaration, confirms that these

entrepreneurs are slightly low on neuroticism and high on conscientiousness and openness to

experience. Extraversion varies. Notably, while some entrepreneurs considered themselves

neurotic (more than 3 on 5).

However, unlike most entrepreneurs, these entrepreneurs claim that they are agreeable.

Notably, not even one considered themselves disagreeable (less than 3 on 5). Oour study is an

exception to the rule which considers entrepreneurs disagreeable and worth further

investigation. One possible reason is that some of these entrepreneurs do not have employees

and don't need to be disagreeable. A second possible reason is that not having shareholders to

report to, they can take a long-term view of their enterprise and don't have to be focused on

short-term results. Another possible reason could be that they are into entrepreneurship for

values rather than money.

Based on this exception, we can hypothesize, for larger studies:

H1: Dual career entrepreneurs are high on agreeability.

H2A: Dual career entrepreneurs remain micro because they are agreeable.

H2B: Dual career entrepreneurs are agreeable because they are micro and do not need

to control employees.

H3: Commercial entrepreneurs gain their satisfaction by being included in privileged

sections of society based on their experience while social entrepreneurs gain their satisfaction

by being allowed to experiment on society based on their beliefs.

The understanding of these variables may be useful to other agreeable persons who

may want to be micro-entrepreneurs. It may also be useful to sensitive individuals who want to

work with agreeable entrepreneurs.

REFERENCES

Amit R, MacCrimmon KR, Zietsma C, Oesch JM. 2001. Does money matter?: Wealth attainment as the motive for initiating growth-oriented technology ventures. Journal of Business Venturing 16(2):119-143. Baron RA. 2007. Behavioral and cognitive factors in entrepreneurship: entrepreneurs as the active element in new venture creation. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal 1(1-2):167-182. Campbell BA, Ganco M, Franco AM, Agarwal R. 2012. Who leaves, where to, and why worry? employee mobility, entrepreneurship and effects on source firm performance. Strategic Management Journal 33(1):65-87. Cassar G. 2007. Money, money, money? A longitudinal investigation of entrepreneur career reasons, growth preferences and achieved growth. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development 19(1):89-107. Cohen B, Smith B, Mitchell R. 2008. Toward a sustainable conceptualization of dependent variables in entrepreneurship research. Business Strategy & the Environment (John Wiley & Sons, Inc) 17(2):107-119. Dacin PA, Dacin MT, Matear M. 2010. Social Entrepreneurship: Why We Don't Need a New Theory and How We Move Forward From Here. Academy of Management Perspectives 24(3):37-57. Delvolve N, Veyer S. 2009. De la coopérative d’activités et d’emploi à la mutuelle de travail : produire du droit pour accompagner un projet politique d’économie sociale. Coopaname: Paris. Hessels J, Van Gelderen M, Thurik R. 2008. Entrepreneurial aspirations, motivations, and their drivers. Small Business Economics 31(3):323-339. Inglehart R. 1997. Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ. Koe Hwee Nga J, Shamuganathan G. 2010. The Influence of Personality Traits and Demographic Factors on Social Entrepreneurship Start Up Intentions. Springer Science & Business Media B.V.; 259-282.

Nicolaou N, Shane S, Cherkas L, Spector TD. 2008. The influence of sensation seeking in the heritability of entrepreneurship. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal 2(1):7-21. Özcan S, Reichstein T. 2009. Transition to Entrepreneurship from the Public Sector: Predispositional and Contextual Effects. Management Science 55(4):604-618. Sangiorgio J, Veyer S. Construire sur les bases d’une coopérative d’activités et d’emploi : l’émergence d’une entreprise de salariat, d’accompagnement et d’apprentissage mutuels. In Proceedings of the Actes du Colloque «Economie sociale et solidaire : nouvelles pratiques et dynamiques territoriales », Nantes. Available at. Santos F. 2012. A Positive Theory of Social Entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Ethics 111(3):335-351. Sørensen JB. 2007. Bureaucracy and Entrepreneurship: Workplace Effects on Entrepreneurial Entry. Administrative Science Quarterly 52(3):387-412. Zhao H, Seibert SE. 2006. The Big Five Personality Dimensions and Entrepreneurial Status: A Meta-Analytical Review. Journal of Applied Psychology 91(2):259-271.

Table 1: The big five personality traits

The Big five

Personality Variables Desription High end Low end

Extraversion

The extent to which people

are assertive, dominant,

energetic, active, talkative,

and enthusiastic (Costa &

McCrae, 1992)

Cheerful, like people and

large groups, and seek

excitement and stimulation

Prefer to spend more time

alone and are characterized

as reserved, quiet, and

independent

Neuroticism: Emotional and adjustment

instability

A number of negative

emotions including anxiety,

hostility, depression, self-

consciousness,

impulsiveness, and

vulnerability

Self-confident, calm, even

tempered, and relaxed.

Openness to Experience

Intellectually curious and

tends to seek new

experiences and explore

novel ideas.

Creative, innovative,

imaginative, reflective, and

untraditional.

Conventional, narrow in

interests, and unanalytical.

Agreeableness Interpersonal orientation.

Trusting, forgiving, caring,

altruistic, and gullible.

Cooperative values and a

preference for positive

interpersonal relationships.

Manipulative, self-centered,

suspicious, and ruthless

Conscientiousness

An individual’s degree of

organization, persistence,

hard work, and motivation

in the pursuit of goal

accomplishment

Achievement motivation

and dependability

Non-dependable, low-

achievers

Source: Based on Zhao & Seibert (2006).

Tables 2: Profiles of the respondents

First name Gender

Age at

time of

interview

Years

in

Salaried

Years in

Entrepreneurship

Number of

employees

(when

entrepreneur)

Education

after high

school

Career Path

1 Sébastien M 37 9 4 0

+5, later

+1

Many salaried jobs in the beginning,

finally tempwork for a year, Another

Masters, Salaried (4 years), Salaried

(4 years), Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur

with part-time salary

2 Agnès F 50 29 5 0

+5, later

+7 (part-

time)

Salaried (5 years), Salaried (4 years),

Break, Part-time salaried (20 years),

Entrepreneur with multiple part-time

contracts

3 Laure F 43 13 2 10 +4

Salaried, Part-time salaried,

Entrepreneur, Unemployed, Salaried

4

Jean-

Marie

M 45 17 2 10 +2

Salaried, Salaried, Entrepreneur,

Unemployed, Salaried

5 David M 10 6 50 +5 Salaried, Salaried, Entrepreneur

6 Damien M 32 4 7 0 +5

Salaried, Entrepreneurship with

employees, entrepreneur with no

employees

7 Régis M 64 30 10 100

+5 (He

did not

take the

final

exam)

Many periods of salaried

employment (in architecture)

alternating with unemployment, now

co-entrepreneur (salaried

entrepreneur with a cooperative)

8 Stéphan M 42 9 11 700 +5

Many jobs, Salaried consultant,

unemployed, Salaried multinational

consultancy, Co-founded a

cooperative of salaried entrepreneurs.

9 Stéphane M 43 4 14 40 +5

Employment in multinational audit

firm, Entrepreneurship, now many

employees

10 Ariane F 36 12 2 0 +5

Many jobs, unemployment, now

entrepreneur

11 Mehdi M 38 10 2 0 +3

Salaried, Salaried, NGO,

unemployed, now entrepreneur

Table 3: Expressed motivation for career changes

Motivation for change 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Total

Work

No possibilities to evolve in the

organization (need more learning,

competencies).

x x x x 4

Their own Entreprise closed down xx xx xx 3

Did not agree on organizational direction,

organizational values, CEO's values

x x x 3

Work not recognized in organization x x 2

Jobs not satisfying x 1

Prestige of the organization x 1

Personal

Financial rewards x x x 3

Need to create, need to be an entrepreneur x x x 3

Need for socio-political commitments x x 2

Work with spouse x x 2

Decided to charge for her advisory

services

x 1

Time flexibility for personal needs x 1

Family

Family reasons: Following Spouse, child's

health, parental leave

x x x x x 5

Too much travelling, lose family balance x x 2

Note: Non-shaded means it was a reason for changing from one salaried job to another, shaded means it was a reason for

changing from salaried to entrepreneur, xx means reversion to salaried.

Table 4: Self-assessment on the big five personality variables

The Big Five

Personality Variables

Scores (5 high, 1 low)

Extraversion Neuroticism:

Openness to

Experience Agreeableness Conscientiousness

1 Sébastien 4.0 2.0 5.0 4.0 4.0

2 Agnès 2.5 3.0 4.5 5.0 5.0

3 Laure 2.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 4.0

4 Jean-Marie 2.0 1.0 4.0 5.0 3.0

5 David 5.0 2.0 4.0 4.0 4.5

6 Damien 4.0 1.0 5.0 4.0 5.0

7 Régis 2.5 3.0 4.0 4.0 3.0

8 Stéphan 3.0 2.0 4.0 5.0 3.0

9 Stpéhane 5.0 2.0 4.0 4.0 4.0

10 Ariane 2.0 3.5 5.0 3.0 3.5

11 Mehdi 3.0 4.0 4.0 3.0 3.0

Mean 3.18 2.41 4.23 4.00 3.82

Standard Deviation 1.15 0.97 0.61 0.77 0.78

Table 5: Explanations for agreeability

Explanation for Agreeability 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Total

Instrumental

Long term success requires agreeaaility,

disagreeability can only work in the short term

x x x x 4

Good relations and links important x x x x 4

Good ambiance important, team work important,

leaders have to show the way

x x x x 4

Disagreeability is not effective x x x 3

I don't have employees x x 2

Personal

I am basically agreeable, disgreeabilty is not my

personality or style

x x x x x 5

Difficulty in saying no x 1

Teleological

Everyone should win, want to please people, common

interest imortant

x x x x x 5

Everyone has to participate/ all are important and

should be respected, politeness, no one is subordinate.

x x x x 4

We all know each other, family enterprise, paternal

view

x x 2