Nature or nurture? Decoding the DNA of the entrepreneur

Overview

Entrepreneurs play a vital role in the global economy. By developing new businesses, they create jobs, increase economic activity and drive innovation.

Despite decades of academic research into the topic, there is no universal definition of entrepreneurship, and no agreement about the precise traits and behaviours that characterise entrepreneurial leaders.

As the founders of the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year Programme, the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs, Ernst & Young has the privilege of meeting and working with some of the world’s most successful and creative entrepreneurs. This longstanding relationship has given us powerful insight into this highly dynamic and creative group of individuals, and has helped us to form our own view about the mindset of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.

Although entrepreneurs operate across a highly diverse range of sectors and regions of the world, we have found they share a number of common behaviours and characteristics. Subsequent research conducted for this report, which included a survey of 685 entrepreneurs and in-depth interviews with winners of the Entrepreneur Of The Year, has helped us formalise this view into a solid model of what comprises the entrepreneur. We believe that this offers an important contribution to research into the traits of today’s entrepreneurial leaders.