Entrepreneurial Motivation

People who have a sense of their own capability but are not yet interested in being on their own form a potential future source of entrepreneurship. What motivates a person is a question more easily asked than answered. Because the entrepreneurial situation is marked by personal accomplishment in competitive settings and higher standards of excellence, the need for achievement is often described as the primary driver of entrepreneurial behaviour, but it is not the only one. Four needs are commonly discussed.

1. Need for Achievement (N-Ach). The desire to accomplish something difficult — to master, manipulate or organise things, people or ideas rapidly and independently, to overcome obstacles, attain a high standard and surpass others. Entrepreneurship offers the best opportunity to make full use of one's talents, free of the routine and rules that stifle self-development in employment.
2. Need for Power (N-Pow). The concern to influence people or the behaviour of others so as to move in a chosen direction and attain envisioned objectives. Founding a business requires winning the commitment of capital providers, suppliers, employees and customers. Power need not serve self-interest alone — its socialised form is used to touch the lives of others and to build organisations that sustain many.
3. Need for Affiliation (N-Aff). A concern for interpersonal relationships and a tendency to conform to the wishes and norms of those one values. Entrepreneurs are believed to be relatively low on affiliation, since they are expected to be innovators and tradition-breakers; yet in cultures where the family is the bedrock of a career, and in the case of first-generation entrepreneurs driven by patriotic feeling, elements of affiliation motivation can clearly be traced.
4. Need for Autonomy (N-Aut). A desire for independence — to be responsible and accountable to oneself rather than to an external authority, and to have the fullest opportunity to express one's abilities. In many jobs, employees have little freedom to use their discretion, and the absence of it drives some of them to start their own ventures. …