Personality: Blessing or Curse? The Entrepreneur’s Path from Personal to Leadership Competencies

Abstract

This paper is based on a study which investigates the relevance of management competencies in Austrian organizations, focusing on start-ups. The study as well as the existing literature confirms that personal competencies such as ambition, selfconfidence or assertiveness are perceived as more important by start-ups than by established companies. However, further results of the paper show that especially leadership competencies play a major role in developing a growing start-up whereas personal competencies fade into the background and can even have a negative impact on turnover growth. In general, the paper discusses special characteristics of competence classes for start-ups and examines differences and similarities in comparison to established companies. As it has already been indicated, the evidence leads to different and surprising considerations for entrepreneurs and growing start-ups.