A systematic literature review on personality traits in social entrepreneurship

The purpose of this study is to provide a systematic literature review on personality trait research in social entrepreneurship, clarify the prevailing research categories and research themes, and suggest potential future research directions. The review process follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). A total of 60 publications in the research topic from Web of Science and Scopus were analyzed. This study identifies four main categories in studies of personality traits in social entrepreneurship: ‘comparison of personality traits,’ ‘description of personality traits of social entrepreneurs,’ ‘personality traits and social entrepreneurial intention,’ and ‘personality traits and other factors.’ In addition, the themes in each category are also determined and several research gaps deserving of future investigation are recognized. Policymakers and educators gain a deeper understanding of personality traits in social entrepreneurship to have policies that trigger a change in social entrepreneurship education by cultivating personality traits towards sustainable development. This study classifies publications related to personality traits in social entrepreneurship and provides a guide for researchers by providing a systematic understanding of the research structure in this topic.