Personal Characteristics and Social Well-Being of Entrepreneurs as a Resource for Adaptation to Changes

Abstract

The methodological basis of the study is a sociological approach that considers entrepreneurship as a socially significant activity, and the entrepreneur as a subject of this activity. The authors relate the analysis of the data of the all-Russian selective monitoring study with the understanding of the connection between the focus and nature of adaptation and the personality characteristics of adapters. The object of direct study is the respondents of the target population, the main criterion for the formation of which was the self-identification of the respondent, self-determination, and correlation with the status of an entrepreneur. The aim of the study was to analyze and evaluate a number of personality traits specific to an entrepreneur in terms of their resource capacity for productive adaptation to the accelerating pace of changes in the conditions of everyday and social life. The monitoring research toolkit contained questions that made it possible to get an idea of the presence of certain attitudes and personal qualities in the surveyed contingent of respondents that distinguished entrepreneurs as active adapters. The indicators were grouped into several blocks: sociodemographic characteristics of respondents, industry profile and characteristics of enterprises; personal characteristics of entrepreneurs; social self-identification and social well-being of entrepreneurs. The analysis showed that a powerful resource for adapting to constant changes in the environment for entrepreneurs are their personal qualities: the subjective value of freedom of actions and decisions, focus on self-realization, personal growth and development, responsibility and attitude towards independent decision-making in problematic situations. High self-esteem of professionalism is also a significant resource for adaptation to uncertainty, transformations, changes and risks that form in the course of the development of these processes. The social well-being of entrepreneurs is unsatisfactory in terms of a number of important indicators, which significantly reduces their adaptive potential. In particular, material wealth, status (respect) in the society, legal protection and security, confidence in the stability of employment and welfare are rated by entrepreneurs as low.