Entrepreneurship and Need of Achievement

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Risk-taking is one of the chief dimensions of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are found to be more risk takers than the managers and salaried employees, such that, they are willing to put their homes on mortgage, jobless and can work for years without any earning (Burns, 2011; Masters & Meier, 1988). According to (Moore & Gergen, 1985), entrepreneurs always take calculate risk and always analyse the situation. Cognitive Psychology supports that the risk taking ability is just limited to their area of expertise (Sjöberg, 1978, Heath & Tversky, 1991). According to (Heath & Tversky, 1991), entrepreneurs take more risk in the area of their interest and expertise and not in those area, they have little knowledge about. But even then also, they take more risk than general population. Studies have found that there is a deep link between Entrepreneurship and Need of Achievement. According to Begley and Boyd (1987), those who have founded their own companies had a higher need for achievement than non-founders or owner managers. Also, (Stewart et al., 1998) responded that need for achievement is higher in entrepreneurs than the corporate manager and owner managers. Need for Achievement is usually high in entrepreneurs than the general population. It provides them with motivation to go ahead and achieve their next target easily. Entrepreneurs showing this tendency usually are good planners, sets their goals, always look for information and learning (Miner, 2000). They accept success and failure of their work and this need of achievement help them to overcome failure, obstacles and setbacks. Another important characteristic it measures is the locus of control. It is an ability by which an individual makes a perception about the underlying main causes of events in his life. If individual believes that he/she has control over the outcomes though their own abilities such as attributes, hard work and decision making then it is known as internal locus of control whereas, In case of external locus of control, individual believes that they don’t have any influence on the outcomes and believes in external forces such as fate and luck (Rotter 1966). According to (Rotter 1966), individual who has higher achievement motivation show more characteristics of internal rather than external locus of control. Creativity is a key part in the entrepreneurial process. It is the ability to invent something new or change something (Webster, 1976). According to (Cromie, 2000), Creative people show some particular characteristics. They find problems very interesting and are not afraid of obstacles; rather, they try to find out the solution of those problems.

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