Are social chameleons prone to entrepreneurship?

What is it about?

Past research in psychology, management, and marketing has provided empirical support for the major propositions of Snyder’s self-monitoring theory. Largely unaddressed, however, is the question of whether self-monitoring might be a driver to starting a business. Since high-self-monitors and low-self-monitors differ in their ability to adapt their self-presentation and patterns of behaviors to the contingencies of the situation, it was reasonable to suspect that chameleon-like high-self-monitors will be more prone to entrepreneurship than true-to-themselves low self-monitors. Building on Snyder’s self-monitoring theory, this research aims to assess the influences of self-monitoring on entrepreneurial intentions and explain the process responsible for these effects. Based on a sample of 296 respondents, the findings of this study generally support that self-monitoring has relevance in predicting an individual’s entrepreneurial intentions. Because high self-monitors have more acting and speaking abilities, are more extroverted and are more concerned with how others perceive them than are low self-monitors, they would be more likely to start a business and become business owners as they possess favorable attitudes toward entrepreneurship. The overall result regarding the risk aversion fails to support a mediating relationship between self-monitoring and entrepreneurial intentions. However, the findings confirm that risk aversion directly reduces entrepreneurial intention. Building on these results, we discuss theoretical and practical implications and propose relevant suggestions regarding the implementation of self-monitoring in fostering the venture creation process.

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