Motivational and cognitive personality traits of entrepreneurs: A research towards comparing manifest needs and locus of control of entreprenurs and managers

The purposes of this dissertation are to discuss motivational andcognitive entrepreneurial personality traits and to identify similar and differentaspects of these traits of entrepreneurs by comparing with managers and todetermine whether demographic variables have any effects on these traits.Survey method and questionnaire technique are used to determine the levels ofentrepreneurs? four manifest needs and locus of control by comparing thesewith managers? personality traits. The planned research for realizing thepurpose of the dissertation is applied on 160 entrepreneurs (70) and managers(90). The level of Manifest needs was measured using a 20-item instrumentdesigned by Heckert et al. (1999), in order to measure needs for achievement,power, affiliation and autonomy. The level of internal locus of control wasmeasured using a 10-item instrument designed by Mueller and Thomas (2000)based on Rotter? I-E Scale (LOC) in order to determine the levels of internal-external LOC of the sample of the study.As the result of the study, it was estabilished that the entrepreneurs havea higher need for achievement and autonomy than need for affiliation andpower, whereas, the managers have a higher need for dominance than the otherneeds. When the two samples are compared with each other; entrepreneursscored significantly higher in need for achievement and need for autonomy thandid the managers, however, the managers scored significantly higher in need forpower than the entrepreneurs did. The level of locus of control was notsignificantly different for the entrepreneurs and the managers.It was established that some demographic variables had effects on theresults. It was found that the participants who are only-child of their parentshave an higher level of internal locus of control than the participants who havebrothers and sisters. Besides, the entrepreneus having a father who is an owner-manager, have a higher need for achievement than the entrepreneurs having afather who is civil cervent, worker or self-employed. On the other hand, themost important traits and characteristics of the ?ideal entrepreneur? has beendetermind as follows: Experience/proffessional knowledge, Self-confident,Creativity/innovativeness, ntention, Taking risk, Taking responsibility.Key Words: 1) Entrepreneurship Theory, 2) Entrepreneurial Personality Traits,3) Murray?s Manifest Needs, 4) Achievement Motive, 5) Attribution Theory,6) Locus of Control.