ACHIEVEMENT-MOTIVATION AND FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS

A typology of the female entrepreneur was developed on the basis of psychological characteristics of 60 Australian founder businesswomen. Reviews of past research on the psychological profiles of entrepreneurs have shown that studies of women entrepreneurs are non-existent, and that most research has been conducted with men. In the present study, a number of projective and self-report measures were used to assess multiple dimensions of personality within the traditional theoretical framework of David McClelland. Other variables influencing the motivations of entrepreneurs, for instance motives usually attributed to managers, were explored and included self-attributed need for power and influence, ability to influence/have power, resistance to subordination, internal locus of control, job satisfaction, and achievement values. Analyses revealed three psychological types of female entrepreneurs: the need achiever entrepreneur, the pragmatic entrepreneur and the managerial entrepreneur. The need achievers had high need achievement scores, the managerial entrepreneurs had high self-attributed need for power and influence scores, and the pragmatic entrepreneurs were moderate on both motivations of achievement and power.