IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jobuve/v8y2017icp13-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Using digital footprints in entrepreneurship research: A Twitter-based personality analysis of superstar entrepreneurs and managers

Author

Listed:
  • Obschonka, Martin
  • Fisch, Christian
  • Boyd, Ryan

Abstract

Research indicates that individuals’ digital footprints, for example in Twitter and Facebook, can reveal remarkably valid information about their personality characteristics. In this study, we use digital footprints to gain insights into the personality of superstar entrepreneurs and managers, a largely understudied population in entrepreneurship research. Specifically, we compare the personality characteristics of 106 of the most influential business leaders employing a computerized text analysis tool based on the individuals’ Twitter messages (Receptiviti). Our findings are surprising and indicate that superstar managers are more entrepreneurial in many personality characteristics than superstar entrepreneurs. However, we also found some indications that superstar entrepreneurs seem to show features of a classic “Schumpeterian” entrepreneurial personality with respect to being creative, independent rule-breakers.

Suggested Citation

  • Obschonka, Martin & Fisch, Christian & Boyd, Ryan, 2017. "Using digital footprints in entrepreneurship research: A Twitter-based personality analysis of superstar entrepreneurs and managers," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 13-23.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:8:y:2017:i:c:p:13-23
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2017.05.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352673417300239
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbvi.2017.05.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joern H. Block & Christian O. Fisch & Mirjam van Praag, 2017. "The Schumpeterian entrepreneur: a review of the empirical evidence on the antecedents, behaviour and consequences of innovative entrepreneurship," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 61-95, January.
    2. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1986. "Large Shareholders and Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 461-488, June.
    3. Klass, Oren S. & Biham, Ofer & Levy, Moshe & Malcai, Ofer & Solomon, Sorin, 2006. "The Forbes 400 and the Pareto wealth distribution," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 290-295, February.
    4. Melissa S. Cardon & Maw–Der Foo & Dean Shepherd & Johan Wiklund, 2012. "Exploring the Heart: Entrepreneurial Emotion is a Hot Topic," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(1), pages 1-10, January.
    5. Joon Mahn Lee & Byoung‐Hyoun Hwang & Hailiang Chen, 2017. "Are founder CEOs more overconfident than professional CEOs? Evidence from S&P 1500 companies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 751-769, March.
    6. Benz, Matthias & Frey, Bruno S., 2008. "The value of doing what you like: Evidence from the self-employed in 23 countries," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(3-4), pages 445-455, December.
    7. Martin Obschonka & Michael Stuetzer, 2017. "Integrating psychological approaches to entrepreneurship: the Entrepreneurial Personality System (EPS)," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 203-231, June.
    8. Tata, Amulya & Martinez, Daniella Laureiro & Garcia, David & Oesch, Adrian & Brusoni, Stefano, 2017. "The psycholinguistics of entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 7(C), pages 38-44.
    9. Patzelt, Holger & Shepherd, Dean A., 2011. "Negative emotions of an entrepreneurial career: Self-employment and regulatory coping behaviors," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 226-238, March.
    10. William J. Baumol & Melissa A. Schilling & Edward N. Wolff, 2009. "The Superstar Inventors and Entrepreneurs: How Were They Educated?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 711-728, September.
    11. Matthias Benz & Bruno S. Frey, "undated". "The Value of Autonomy: Evidence from the Self-Employed in 23 Countries," IEW - Working Papers 173, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    12. Emilie R. Feldman & Cynthia A. Montgomery, 2015. "Are incentives without expertise sufficient? Evidence from fortune 500 firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 113-122, January.
    13. Steven N. Kaplan & Joshua D. Rauh, 2013. "Family, Education, and Sources of Wealth among the Richest Americans, 1982-2012," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 158-162, May.
    14. Fischer, Eileen & Rebecca Reuber, A., 2014. "Online entrepreneurial communication: Mitigating uncertainty and increasing differentiation via Twitter," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 565-583.
    15. Dimov, Dimo P. & Shepherd, Dean A., 2005. "Human capital theory and venture capital firms: exploring "home runs" and "strike outs"," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-21, January.
    16. Per Davidsson, 2016. "Researching Entrepreneurship," International Studies in Entrepreneurship, Springer, edition 2, number 978-3-319-26692-3, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gutiérrez, Antonio, 2023. "La brecha de género en el emprendimiento y la cultura emprendedora: Evidencia con Google Trends [Entrepreneurship gender gap and entrepreneurial culture: Evidence from Google Trends]," MPRA Paper 115876, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Abbasianchavari, Arezou & Block, Joern, 2022. "Perceptual factors explaining the gender gap in entrepreneurial propensity: A replication and extension," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    3. Block, Joern H. & Hirschmann, Mirko & Kranz, Tobias & Neuenkirch, Matthias, 2023. "Public family firms and economic inequality across societies," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    4. Shaheer, Noman & Chen, Yu & Kim, Hoik & Li, Sali, 2024. "Disguise or disclose? How identities of individual entrepreneurs on digital platforms influence their international success," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(2).
    5. Fisch, Christian & Block, Jörn H., 2021. "How does entrepreneurial failure change an entrepreneur's digital identity? Evidence from Twitter data," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1).
    6. Jens Prüfer & Patricia Prüfer, 2020. "Data science for entrepreneurship research: studying demand dynamics for entrepreneurial skills in the Netherlands," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 651-672, October.
    7. Jörn H. Block & Christian Fisch & Walter Diegel, 2024. "Schumpeterian entrepreneurial digital identity and funding from venture capital firms," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 119-157, February.
    8. Werner Liebregts & Pourya Darnihamedani & Eric Postma & Martin Atzmueller, 2020. "The promise of social signal processing for research on decision-making in entrepreneurial contexts," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 589-605, October.
    9. Javier Sevilla-Bernardo & Blanca Sanchez-Robles & Teresa C. Herrador-Alcaide, 2022. "Success Factors of Startups in Research Literature within the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-24, August.
    10. Markku Maula & Wouter Stam, 2020. "Enhancing Rigor in Quantitative Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(6), pages 1059-1090, November.
    11. Seigner, Benedikt David Christian & Milanov, Hana & Lundmark, Erik & Shepherd, Dean A., 2023. "Tweeting like Elon? Provocative language, new-venture status, and audience engagement on social media," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(2).
    12. Kim, Phillip H. & Kotha, Reddi & Fourné, Sebastian P.L. & Coussement, Kristof, 2019. "Taking leaps of faith: Evaluation criteria and resource commitments for early-stage inventions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 1429-1444.
    13. Dickel, Petra & Graeff, Peter, 2018. "Entrepreneurs' propensity for corruption: A vignette-based factorial survey," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 77-86.
    14. Marie Madeleine Meurer & Matthias Waldkirch & Peter Kalum Schou & Eliane Léontine Bucher & Katrin Burmeister-Lamp, 2022. "Digital affordances: how entrepreneurs access support in online communities during the COVID-19 pandemic," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 637-663, February.
    15. Tumasjan, Andranik & Braun, Reiner & Stolz, Barbara, 2021. "Twitter sentiment as a weak signal in venture capital financing," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(2).
    16. Geissinger, Andrea & Laurell, Christofer & Sandström, Christian, 2020. "Digital Disruption beyond Uber and Airbnb—Tracking the long tail of the sharing economy," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    17. Block, Jörn H. & Fisch, Christian O. & Obschonka, Martin & Sandner, Philipp G., 2019. "A personality perspective on business angel syndication✰," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 306-327.
    18. Demir, Tolga & Mohammadi, Ali & Shafi, Kourosh, 2022. "Crowdfunding as gambling: Evidence from repeated natural experiments," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    19. Hans-Jörg Winkler & Verena Rieger & Andreas Engelen, 2020. "Does the CMO’s personality matter for web traffic? Evidence from technology-based new ventures," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 308-330, March.
    20. Martin Obschonka & Christian Fisch, 2018. "Entrepreneurial personalities in political leadership," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 851-869, April.
    21. Giuliano Sansone & Elisa Ughetto & Paolo Landoni, 2021. "Entrepreneurial intention: An analysis of the role of Student-Led Entrepreneurial Organizations," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 399-433, September.
    22. Elena-Loreni Baciu & Delia Vîrgă & Theofild-Andrei Lazăr, 2020. "What Characteristics Help Entrepreneurs ‘Make It’ Early on in Their Entrepreneurial Careers? Findings of a Regional Study from Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-27, June.
    23. Atthaphon Mumi & Michael Obal & Yi Yang, 2019. "Investigating social media as a firm’s signaling strategy through an IPO," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 631-645, October.
    24. Martin Obschonka & David B. Audretsch, 2020. "Artificial intelligence and big data in entrepreneurship: a new era has begun," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 529-539, October.
    25. Chalmers, Dominic & Matthews, Russell & Hyslop, Amy, 2021. "Blockchain as an external enabler of new venture ideas: Digital entrepreneurs and the disintermediation of the global music industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 577-591.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin Obschonka & Christian Fisch, 2018. "Entrepreneurial personalities in political leadership," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 851-869, April.
    2. Milena Nikolova & Boris Nikolaev & Olga Popova, 2021. "The perceived well-being and health costs of exiting self-employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1819-1836, December.
    3. Jens Prüfer & Patricia Prüfer, 2020. "Data science for entrepreneurship research: studying demand dynamics for entrepreneurial skills in the Netherlands," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 651-672, October.
    4. Thomas Lechat & Olivier Torrès, 2017. "Stressors and satisfactors in entrepreneurial activity: an event-based, mixed methods study predicting small business owners' health," Post-Print hal-04012050, HAL.
    5. Nikolova, Milena, 2018. "Self-Employment Can Be Good for Your Health," GLO Discussion Paper Series 226, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Maha Aly & David B. Audretsch & Heike Grimm, 2021. "Emotional skills for entrepreneurial success: the promise of entrepreneurship education and policy," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(5), pages 1611-1629, October.
    7. Panka Bencsik & Tuugi Chuluun, 2021. "Comparative well-being of the self-employed and paid employees in the USA," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 355-384, January.
    8. Ute Stephan & Andreas Rauch & Isabella Hatak, 2023. "Happy Entrepreneurs? Everywhere? A Meta-Analysis of Entrepreneurship and Wellbeing," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(2), pages 553-593, March.
    9. Shir, Nadav & Nikolaev, Boris N. & Wincent, Joakim, 2019. "Entrepreneurship and well-being: The role of psychological autonomy, competence, and relatedness," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1-1.
    10. Fisch, Christian & Block, Jörn H., 2021. "How does entrepreneurial failure change an entrepreneur's digital identity? Evidence from Twitter data," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1).
    11. Nikolova, Milena, 2019. "Switching to self-employment can be good for your health," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 664-691.
    12. Peter Warr & Ilke Inceoglu, 2018. "Work Orientations, Well-Being and Job Content of Self-Employed and Employed Professionals," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(2), pages 292-311, April.
    13. Leonidas A. Zampetakis & Manolis Lerakis & Konstantinos Kafetsios & Vassilis S. Moustakis, 2016. "The moderating role of anticipated affective ambivalence in the formation of entrepreneurial intentions," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 815-838, September.
    14. Cueto, Begona & Pruneda, Gabriel, 2015. "Job Satisfaction of Wage and Self-Employed workers. Do preferences make a difference?," MPRA Paper 65432, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Clemens Hetschko, 2016. "On the misery of losing self-employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 461-478, August.
    16. Stroe, Silvia & Sirén, Charlotta & Shepherd, Dean & Wincent, Joakim, 2020. "The dualistic regulatory effect of passion on the relationship between fear of failure and negative affect: Insights from facial expression analysis," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(4).
    17. Falco, Paolo & Maloney, William F. & Rijkers, Bob & Sarrias, Mauricio, 2015. "Heterogeneity in subjective wellbeing: An application to occupational allocation in Africa," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 137-153.
    18. Murat Yalcintas & Oyk㜠Iyigãœn & Gokhan Karabulut, 2023. "Personal Characteristics And Intention For Entrepreneurship," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 68(02), pages 539-561.
    19. Stephan, Ute & Tavares, Susana M. & Carvalho, Helena & Ramalho, Joaquim J.S. & Santos, Susana C. & van Veldhoven, Marc, 2020. "Self-employment and eudaimonic well-being: Energized by meaning, enabled by societal legitimacy," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(6).
    20. Lechmann, Daniel S. J., 2015. "Can working conditions explain the return-to-entrepreneurship puzzle?," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 48(4), pages 271-286.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:8:y:2017:i:c:p:13-23. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-business-venturing-insights .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.