Identifying personality traits associated with entrepreneurial success: does gender matter?

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This study provides a conceptual and empirical clarification of the extent to which the Big Five personality traits of openness to experience, extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and agreeableness affect entrepreneurial success in an emerging country context. We also examine whether gender moderates the association between these five personality traits and entrepreneurial success. 174 Tunisian entrepreneurs were surveyed by using a questionnaire and the partial least squares method and multi-group analysis were piloted to test the six research hypotheses. The results clearly demonstrate that entrepreneurial personality traits that relate significantly to business success are characterized by high emotional stability, openness to experience, and conscientiousness. Further, the results illustrate that gender moderates the association between personality and entrepreneurial success. Government agencies that promote and encourage entrepreneurs and business creation may find the presented findings useful in helping to recognize future successful entrepreneurs on the basis of their personality traits. JEL Codes: M1