Firm founders adopted traits in their enterprises, and its effect on enterprise success in the different stages : A qualitative study that explores what traits are of significant value to adopt in birth, growth and maturity stages in an enterprise in Swed

Sammanfattning: The number of enterprises has grown throughout the past decades, where previous research emphasizes that the difficulties of succeeding as a self-employer is a fact. Today’s society is evolving towards a competitive market of self-employment, where traits play a bigger role through the whole process. In this context, the distinct traits adopted by firm founders in birth, growth and maturity stages of an enterprise in Sweden, has not been thoroughly examined. Therefore, the authors aim to provide insight in what traits firm founders have adopted in the different stages through a retrospective perspective, and to what extent their traits have affected the success in each stage of the firm. This study collects qualitative data and adopts a comparative case study to identify what traits unite the firm founders. By conducting four semi-structured in-depth interviews, the authors identified a common trait in each stage of the enterprises amongst all participants, which were dedication (birth), energy (growth) and straight forward (maturity). Evidence showed that the common traits are specific managerial trait in birth stage, whereas leadership traits in growth stage and maturity stage. The study then elaborates on to what extent the adopted traits affect enterprise success in each stage, in which it is proven by the literature provided, that the specific traits do not lead to a particular success in the given stage.