Green start-ups and the role of founder personality

Chapman, Gary; Hottenrott, Hanna

Abstract

Green start-ups play a vital role in the needed transition towards more environmentally sustainable economies. Yet our understanding of why some founders start green ventures and others do not remains incomplete. We build on the cognitive and decision-making perspectives on start-ups pro-environmental engagement to shed light on the role of founders' personality traits - focusing on the ‘Big 5’ and risk tolerance - in explaining whether founders' start new ventures with environmentally friendly products. Our analysis of a large, representative, manufacturing and service sector sample of German start-ups illustrates the important role of founder personality traits. Specifically, openness and extraversion promote environmentally friendly products while neuroticism inhibits them. We discuss the implications of these insights.

Citation

Chapman, G., & Hottenrott, H. (2022). Green start-ups and the role of founder personality. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 17, Article e00316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2022.e00316

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 27, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Apr 1, 2022
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jun 22, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 23, 2022
• Journal: Journal of Business Venturing Insights
• Print ISSN: 2352-6734
• Electronic ISSN: 2352-6734
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 17
• Article Number: e00316
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2022.e00316
• Keywords: Management of Technology and Innovation; Business and International Management
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/8631496
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352673422000142?via%3Dihub