Nawaf Alabduljader, Esraa Alhijji
We examine the role of founders’ personality traits in the success of new ventures using a sample from the Middle East. Despite growing interest and investments into entrepreneurs in the Middle East, our knowledge of what makes entrepreneurs succeed in this region is limited. Using a sample from Kuwait we examine the role of proactive personality, need for achievement, risktaking propensity, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy on new venture growth in employment. Additionally, we examine the effect of extreme levels of risk-taking propensity and entrepreneurial self-efficacy on growth in employment. Our results indicate that extreme levels of a founder’s entrepreneurial self-efficacy have a negative impact on new venture performance in terms of employment growth. Surprisingly, we find no support for the role of the other personality traits in predicting venture success. Our results indicate that additional research of what makes entrepreneurs succeed in the Middle East is needed to build our knowledge of whether other traits or characteristics are more important for new venture success.