When the entrepreneur sneezes,the organization catches a cold': A practitioner's perspective on the state of the art in research on the entrepreneurial personality and the entrepreneurial process

In smaller organizations the first and foremost factor of importance is the power and centrality of the lead entrepreneur. It is the personality, the beliefs, the values and the behaviour of this single individual that exerts a powerful impact on the past, present and future of the business. Their destinies are inextricably linked. This article reviews ways in which this duality is explored and the extent to which research has contributed insight and understanding into the complex and idiosyncratic nature of the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial process. Emphasis is placed on the importance of language and the need to access the unique lexicon of the entrepreneur in order to understand how this individual constructs his/her world in order to facilitate change. The emerging importance of intuition is highlighted, which, it is argued, offers exciting prospects for the design of both entrepreneurship and executive development programmes. The article concludes by suggesting that intuition is a core capability that lies at the heart of emotional intelligence and that both concepts are worth exploring in future entrepreneurship research.