Abstract

Entrepreneurs are responsible for starting new ventures, often with high risk and innovation, while managers oversee existing organizations, optimize operations, and achieve predefined goals. Although frequently seen as a dichotomy, entrepreneurs and managers share responsibilities for building and sustaining a business, and hence, this could also be studied as a spectrum. Previous research has individually examined specific aspects of entrepreneurial (vs managerial) work, but limited studies have examined their effects holistically. Using a wide range of survey instruments, we took an exploratory data-driven approach to explore the entrepreneurial-managerial spectrum. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five latent factors driving variance in our data: Negative Emotions, Fulfillment & Support, Creative Capacity, Collaborative Personality, and Decision-Making Avoidance & Hypervigilance. When explored as a traditional dichotomy, our results found that entrepreneurs scored lower than managers in Decision-Making Avoidance & Hypervigilance and Collaborative Personality. On the other hand, as a spectrum, data suggested an increase in Creative Capacity and a decrease in Decision-Making Avoidance & Hypervigilance with increasing entrepreneurial experience. Emotional health and career success remained similar across groups. Overall, we explored the complex profile of entrepreneurs and managers as a step towards understanding the dynamic and unique combination of personality, cognition, emotional health, and demographics across the entrepreneurial-managerial spectrum.