John B. Miner

Entrepreneurs, high growth entrepreneurs, and managers: Contrasting and overlapping motivational patterns

Abstract This paper describes a program of research, based on role motivation theory and dealing with entrepreneurship, as it has evolved over some 15 years. It notes both dead-ends and successful navigations. Subsequent to the literature review, new findings are presented indicating that motivational measures are particularly effective in identifying growth-oriented entrepreneurs. Implications of these findings for theory construction and for the identification of entrepreneurs capable of establishing growing businesses are discussed. The role motivation typology involving hierarchic, professional, task, and group systems is reviewed. The view that effective organizational performance is a function of the fit between organizational systems and motivational patterns of key performers is discussed. The presentation then focuses on the hierarchic and task domains that are of primary concern in this paper. Functional motives in the hierarchic domain are a favorable attitude toward people in authority, a desire to compete, a desire to exercise power, a desire to assert oneself, a desire to assume a distinctive status, and a desire to perform routine managerial duties. In the task domain the essential motives are a desire to achieve through ones own efforts, a desire to avoid risk, a desire for feedback, a desire to introduce innovative solutions, and a desire to plan. Measures of these constructs are described, and research results are considered. Although hierarchic motivation consistently relates to managerial success, it tends to be at a low level among entrepreneurs. In contrast, studies of the task motivation of entrepreneurs consistently find it at a high level relative to managers. The present research indicates a similar superiority of entrepreneurs over managers in task motivation. However, it goes beyond prior studies in indicating an increased differential for chief executive entrepreneurs who head growth-oriented firms. This is the arena in which task theory really works. Furthermore, entrepreneurial and managerial motivation appear to exhibit only a marginal relationship to one another. These findings are extended in a theoretical sense to develop an agenda for research into the mixes of task and managerial motivation required as firms move through the life cycle. The significant role that individuals with both task and managerial motivation may play in this context is explored. In addition, attention is given to the useful role motivational measures can play in helping those who fund new ventures to identify entrepreneurial talent.

Role Motivation Theories.

This book looks at four types of organizations and what makes them work. The four are not exhaustive of all possible organizational types but they do represent the major forms found in the world today. Drawing upon many years of research, the author argues that the organizational effectiveness required to produce high levels of productivity results from achieving a state of integration between the type of organizational system and the kind of people who fill the key positions in the system.

Testing a Psychological Typology of Entrepreneurship Using Business Founders

This study follows upon previous research among established entrepreneurs indicating that a four-way psychological typology (i.e., personal achievers, real managers, expert idea generators, and empathic supersalespeople) predicts firm growth. It extends support for the typology to the venture initiation phase and to a student population. The results confirm that those students who are characterized by one or more of the types are more likely to be entrepreneurs after graduation. Measures of entrepreneurial propensities and skill in business plan preparation—both obtained prior to graduation—are also predicted by the typology. As a test of the basic theory, this research provides substantial support. It also extends the domain of that theory to incorporate the enterprise start-up phase.

Role of entrepreneurial task motivation in the growth of technologically innovative firms: Interpretations from follow-up data.

The authors used follow-up data on the growth of 59 firms contacted over 5 years after their entrepreneurs were tested with the Miner Sentence Completion Scale-Form T to test hypotheses derived from task theory. The results lend support for the predictive criterion-related validity of overall task motivation, a desire for personal achievement, a desire to innovate, and a desire to plan and set goals, but not for a desire to avoid risks

Defining the inventor-entrepreneur in the context of established typologies

Abstract Some 25 years ago while developing his type of entrepreneur and type of firm classification system. Smith (1967) thought he had identified a subtype of entrepreneur that did not fit either his craftsman or his opportunistic models. The data at that time were too sparse to be sure, but it appeared that there were certain entrepreneurs whose major concern was to develop an organization, not as an end in itself as with the opportunistic type, but rather as a vehicle to allow the invention and production of various products. This research now provides much more convincing evidence that the inventor-entrepreneur does indeed exist, using a sample of 147 National Science Foundation grant applicants who are also entrepreneurs. This sample was deemed particularly likely to contain large numbers of inventor-entrepreneurs. The support for Smiths (1967) early speculations turns out to be rather amazing. The inventor-entrepreneurs are located exactly where Smith (1967) expected them to be in the type of entrepreneur versus type affirm matrix. As anticipated, inventor-entrepreneurs, like other entrepreneurs, are more likely to head growing companies to the extent that they themselves are of the opportunistic type and their firms are of the adaptive type; there is nothing in the inventor-entrepreneur concept alone that calls for company growth. Also as hypothesized, the presence of a large number of inventor-entrepreneurs in a sample tends to dilute the usual finding of a strong positive correlation between type of entrepreneur and type of firm measures; among inventor-entrepreneurs it is not necessarily true that opportunistic entrepreneurs tend to head adaptive firms and craftsman entrepreneurs head rigid ones. There was one unexpected finding, however. Smith (1967) originally associated the inventor-entrepreneur with a proclivity for taking out patents. Although this association is supported by this research, it is dwarfed by another factor. What is really indicative of inventor-entrepreneurship is a strong commitment to a company strategy of new product development. Although not established by this research, it would appear that increasingly those who invent are dissuaded from seeking patents by the costs involved, the time delays, and the prospect in many new industries that patents will provide very little protection. It seems likely that patents will continue to decline in popularity among inventor-entrepreneurs, and that rapid market entry with new products to become a market leader will be the preferred strategy of the future. This assumes of course that inventor-entrepreneurs have access to sufficient capital to pursue this new product development strategy effectively. Investors should recognize, however, that the real importance of the inventor-entrepreneur stems not so much from immediate profit potential and the prospects for asset growth, although these are there, as from the contributions these individuals make to an expanding economy and the well-being of society.

Motivation to manage among women: Studies of business managers and educational administrators

Abstract Studies were undertaken in a department store and in four school districts to determine if managerial motivation is related to management success indexes and whether female managers have less managerial motivation than males. The measure of managerial motivation used was the Miner Sentence Completion Scale. Managerial motivation did prove to be significantly related to the success of female managers, but no consistent differences in the managerial motivation of male and female managers were found. The results are interpreted in terms of their implications for the vocational guidance of females and for research in the area of managerial talent supplies.

A psychological typology and its relationship to entrepreneurial success

This research indicates that typologies covering multiple types of entrepreneurs are applicable within the realm of entrepreneurial personality. Four such personality types - personal achievers, real managers, expert idea generators, and empathic supersalespeople - are identified, and shown to be related to subsequent entrepreneurial success. The evidence indicates that entrepreneurial talent may be gauged in terms of the number of these patterns present in a given individual. Those with more patterns are more likely to achieve a substantial level of success. These results have implications for anyone whose work touches upon the field of entrepreneurship. This paper is concerned primarily with how the typology was developed and how the relationship of each type to entrepreneurial success was established. The career routes that fit each type (and which must be followed to obtain success) are considered.

The Miner Sentence Completion Scale: A Reappraisal

An attempt is made to correct certain conceptual and methodological errors contained in a previous article on the Miner Sentence Completion Scale (MSCS). New data bearing on scorer reliability, con...

Limited Domain Theories of Organizational Energy

The title of this paper contains two basic elements—the concepts of limited domain theory and of organizational energy. The first of these draws upon Dubin’s (1969) terminology and refers to theories that have a number of boundary-determining criteria. Whether the theories to be presented are truly theories of the middle range in the sense Merton (1949) intended is an open question, but they are not grand theories; the boundaries within which they are expected to prove valid are sharply delimited. It is because the definition of middle range theory is somewhat imprecise that the limited domain concept is applied here. When exactly does a theory move from a narrow range into the middle of the spectrum? If one is not sure about this matter of classification, the limited domain terminology with its requirement of precise boundary limits, has considerable appeal.

The Role of Managerial and Professional Motivation in the Career Success of Management Professors

Two limited domain theories of organizational motivation, the professional and the hierarchic, were tested in the professional context using professor members of the Academy of Management as subjects. As hypothesized, the results supported the professional theory, but not the hierarchic. Implications for professional practice and for professional organizations are considered.