How Do Personality Traits of Ecopreneurs Impact the Investment Decision of Sustainable Venture Capitalists?

Sammanfattning: Entrepreneurs have certain personality traits that are evaluated by venture capitalists (VCs) when making their investment decision, which have been studied in literature. However, personality traits in ecopreneurs, or sustainable entrepreneurs, that may impact the investment decision of a sustainable venture capitalist (SVC) are not known to have been studied, and therefore warrant research opportunities. New innovations are becoming increasingly important to help solve some of the world’s pressing environmental issues, and therefore, there is a need to better understand how ecopreneurs can financially sustain their new ventures. This study aims to understand how the ecopreneur’s personality traits impact the SVC’s investment decision, by doing a qualitative study through semi-structured interviews of SVCs located in Scandinavia. A personality trait model used for traditional entrepreneurs was used as a framework for this study and applied in the ecopreneurial context and thus, a deductive approach was taken. The personality traits in the model include risk aversion, ability to perform a continuous and intense effort, desire to earn money, honesty and integrity, attention to detail, favorable to suggestions and critics, and long-term vision, and were proposed to be an enabler or disabler in the SVC’s investment decision. Through five interviews with SVCs, it was found that honesty and integrity was the most important trait in the SVCs decision to invest in the ecopreneur. The desire to earn money was found to have both enabling and disabling aspects. Long-term vision emerged from the research as important, specific to ecopreneurs and their vision of making a positive global environmental impact, but should include short-term goals to achieve that long-term vision. Furthermore, the research allowed for new insights to come to light, wherein two personality traits were adjusted to better suit the context of the ecopreneur, and two additional traits were added to the model, as they were found to be significant and enabling for an SVC to invest. These are ‘passionate’ and ‘relationship builder.’ Gaining further insight into enabling personality traits in ecopreneurs for investment purposes can help the field of entrepreneurship understand challenges and success factors for ecopreneurs.