Traits of an Entrepreneur

The entrepreneur has played several fundamental roles in economic development. Nevertheless, this may not have been possible if he did not possess some certain traits to distinguish him from other personalities. Entrepreneurial success depends on the management of your own self. For this you require certain traits, qualities or behavioral competencies.

Barreto (1982) presents four groupings of the critical traits of an entrepreneur; coordinator, arbitrage, innovation, and uncertainty-bearing. He further divides the last category into sub-groupings: He further divides the last category into sub-groupings: speculation, ownership, and decision-maker. These characteristics demonstrate the human elements of entrepreneurship.

Coordinator: An entrepreneur is a combiner and coordinator of productive resources. He is at the crux of the market system. This implies that the entrepreneur is the link of communication between the various classes of producer and consumer. He directs the business of production and is the center of many bearings and relationships.

Arbitrageur: The entrepreneur is someone with the ability to perceive profit opportunities and act upon them. He observes the opportunity to sell something at a price higher than that at which he may be willing to pay for it.

Innovator: Innovation is an outcome of new combinations created by the entrepreneur. These new combinations are created by the entrepreneur who develops new goods, quality, new methods of production, new markets or new organizations.

Uncertainty-bearer: The entrepreneur conducts all of the exchanges in the market, buying from producers and selling to consumers. By performing this function, he leads the market toward equilibrium. But he is more than a mere arbitrageur (buying low and selling high) because of the presence of uncertainty. This is further divided into sub-groups:

I. A speculator: The entrepreneur, in conducting his transactions buys at a certain price and sells at an uncertain price. He is a speculator and the key to the market system because of his willingness to bear risk.

II. Owner: The adoption of the entrepreneurial role carries with it the assumption of responsibilities in an uncertain business environment. The entrepreneur motivates production and becomes the responsible owner of the product.

III. Decision-maker: In uncertain conditions, someone must decide what to do and be responsible for that decision. The decision-making function forecasts demand and estimates the factors marginal productiveness. Thus the entrepreneur is more than a manager, he is the key in the productive process by deciding, in an uncertain environment what and how to produce. He becomes an entrepreneur by virtue of his willingness to accept the results of a particular endeavor.