Martin Obschonka
Biographic Data
| ID | 961697 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Martin Obschonka |
| GIVEN NAMES | Martin |
| FAMILY NAME | Obschonka |
| SIGNATURE | OBSCHONKA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Queensland University of Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0853-7166 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 82 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 41 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Regional Personality Variation in Sweden: Trait Clusters, Links to Health and Well‐Being, and Historical Context
Personality traits (e.g., the Big Five) shape human behavior, decision‐making, and life outcomes. Evidence from various countries suggests that these traits are not randomly distributed but follow systematic regional patterns, fueling interest in their geographical variation. We analyze N = 22,225 geo‐coded personality assessments, aggregated at regional levels. Using Hot Spot analysis (Getis‐Ord Gi), we identify spatial clusters of personality t…
AI, trust, and the market for lemons: Rethinking the credibility of entrepreneurship research
Entrepreneurship research faces a growing challenge: studies using advanced AI methods are trusted less than those that do not. In a survey of 172 entrepreneurship scholars, we document a substantial trust discount—AI-based studies are perceived, as a category, to be significantly less credible than those using conventional statistical methods. To explain this outcome, we adapt Akerlof’s market-for-lemons framework and introduce the concept of “s…
Entrepreneurial deviance as bright and dark character virtues: The Harry Potter study
When values are not enough: The role of external enablement in early stage, sustainability-oriented industry creation
The creation of sustainable industries is widely regarded as one of the most pressing issues in policymaking and research alike. The growing scholarly work in this field so far mostly highlights agent-focused perspectives, such as how value-driven agents individually and collectively create significant and lasting change. We complement such studies by addressing the underlying business-environmental conditions that make participation in such indu…
Imprinting parental signals: A key driver of network status for new spinoff firms
Although past research has firmly established the positive effects of network status for resource acquisition and success in entrepreneurial endeavors, we still have a fragmented, limited understanding of the actual drivers of network status emergence. Prior research has mainly focused on the post-founding phase, pointing to the importance of current employment–based and firm-level affiliations in new ventures for their future status formation. I…
What drives solo and team startups at European universities? The interactive role of entrepreneurial climate, gender, and entrepreneurship course participation
Student entrepreneurship can take the form of solo or team efforts.While a positive and supportive university context is likely to increase entrepreneurial activities in general, it is unclear whether this effect is equally strong on both forms of entrepreneurship and for all types of students.Focusing on students embedded in universities, we study the entrepreneurial climate of universities and its combined effects with gender and entrepreneursh…
Corruption revisited: The influence of national personality, culture, and wealth
Corruption is often seen as one of the root causes of pressing national and global challenges. The persisting stark national differences in corruption levels and their potential causes have thus attracted growing interest from international business scholars. The objective of this study was to re-examine key factors that predict levels of national corruption. Drawing on comprehensive personality data from over 5 million respondents across 87 nati…
On the Roman origins of entrepreneurship and innovation in Germany
We investigate whether the development of regional disparities in entrepreneurship and innovation in Germany can be traced back to Roman rule 2000 years ago. We find a lasting positive Roman effect on the level and quality of entrepreneurship and innovation. This effect might be due to the imprint of local hard factors, such as interregional social and economic exchange, particularly emerging from the integration into the Roman Empire. This effec…
Regional personality differences predict variation in early Covid-19 infections and mobility patterns indicative of social distancing
The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed stark regional variation in the spread of the virus. While previous research has highlighted the impact of regional differences in sociodemographic and economic factors, we argue that regional differences in social and compliance behaviors-the very behaviors through which the virus is transmitted-are critical drivers of the spread of COVID-19, particularly in the early stages of the pandemic. Com…
International psychological research addressing the early phase of the Covid ‐19 pandemic: A rapid scoping review and implications for global psychology
In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID‐19 a global pandemic. Given that keeping abreast of international perspectives and research results is of particular importance for such massive global emergencies, we employed a scoping review methodology to rapidly map the field of international psychological research addressing this important early phase of the pandemic. We included a total of 79 studies, with data mostly collec…
The growth of entrepreneurial human capital: Origins and development of skill variety
Given that recent research on entrepreneurial behavior and success has established skill variety as a central human capital factor, researchers, educators, and policymakers have turned their interest to a deeper understanding of the formation of skill variety. Based on human capital theory and the competence growth approach in developmental psychology (highlighting long-term, age-appropriate, and cumulative skill-growth processes), we hypothesize…
Psychological Openness and the Emergence of Breakthrough vs. Incremental Innovations: A Regional Perspective
Breakthrough innovations are expected to have a bigger impact on local economies than incremental innovations do. Yet past research has largely neglected the regional drivers of breakthrough innovations. Building on theories that highlight the role of personality psychology and human agency in shaping regional innovation cultures, we focus on psychological openness as a potential explanation for why some regions produce more breakthrough innovati…
Psychological implications of the Covid ‐19 pandemic around the world: Introduction to the special issue
Although psychological researchers have long studied the implications of major crises, the outbreak and spread of the COVID‐19 pandemic have confronted the global community of psychologists and psychological researchers with new challenges. This special issue contributes to the growing empirical literature on the immediate psychological implications of the COVID‐19 pandemic. We present and discuss diverse work from authors that followed our call …
Neuroticism mediates the relationship between industrial history and modern‐day regional obesity levels
OBJECTIVE: The historical factors and contemporary mechanisms underlying geographical inequalities in obesity levels remain uncertain. In this study, we examine whether modern regional variation in obesity is partly a result of the impact of large-scale industry on the personality traits of those living in regions once at the center of the Industrial Revolution. METHOD: Exposure to the effects of the Industrial Revolution was assessed using uniqu…
The regional employment effects of new social firm entry
As a contribution to research and theorizing on the economic role of new firm formation, we undertake the first ever investigation of regional employment effects of the entry of new social firms. Our study is guided by an established model of the employment effects of new firm entry over time and provides a direct comparison to the employment effects of commercial entrants. Our results show that the net employment effect of new social firms follo…
Historical industrialisation, path dependence and contemporary culture: The lasting imprint of economic heritage on local communities
Culture matters for regional economic development and is one source of cognitive lock-in that influences path creation and dependency. However, little is known about the sources of regional variation in culture. This study explores the long-term imprinting effect of the Industrial Revolution on cultural practices across local communities in Great Britain. Historical data from 1891 on the employment in large-scale industries (e.g. textiles and ste…
Local housing market dynamics predict rapid shifts in cultural openness: A 9-year study across 199 cities
Accumulating evidence suggests that culture changes in response to shifting socioecological conditions; economic development is a particularly potent driver of such change. Previous research has shown that economic development can induce slow but steady cultural changes within large cultural entities (e.g., countries). Here we propose that economically driven culture change can occur rapidly, particularly in smaller cultural entities (e.g., cites…
Addressing common method variance and endogeneity in vocational behavior research: A review of the literature and suggestions for future research
Artificial intelligence and big data in entrepreneurship: A new era has begun
Entrepreneurial self-efficacy: A systematic review of the literature on its theoretical foundations, measurement, antecedents, and outcomes, and an agenda for future research
Regional variation in courage and entrepreneurship: The contrasting role of courage for the emergence and survival of start‐ups in the United States
OBJECTIVE: There is growing evidence that certain regional personality differences function as important drivers of regional economic development (e.g., via effects on entrepreneurship and innovation activity). The present investigation examines the impact that regional variation in the trait courage has on entrepreneurship. METHOD: Using data from a new large-scale internet-based study, we provide the first psychological map of courage across th…
Confucian” traits, entrepreneurial personality, and entrepreneurship in China: A regional analysis
Historical roots of entrepreneurship-facilitating culture and innovation activity: An analysis for German regions
There is a research gap with respect to understanding the role of cultural attitudes in favour of entrepreneurial activity for actual start-up behaviour. The paper combines historical self-employment data with a psychological measure for entrepreneurial attitudes. The results reveal a positive relationship between the historical level of self-employment in a region and the presence of people with an entrepreneurial personality structure today. Th…
Fear, Populism, and the Geopolitical Landscape: The “Sleeper Effect” of Neurotic Personality Traits on Regional Voting Behavior in the 2016 Brexit and Trump Elections
Two recent electoral results—Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president and the UK’s Brexit vote—have reignited debate on the psychological factors underlying voting behavior. Both campaigns promoted themes of fear, lost pride, and loss aversion, which are relevant to the personality dimension of neuroticism, a construct previously not associated with voting behavior. To that end, we investigate whether regional prevalence of neurotic personality …
Entrepreneurial personalities in political leadership
Historical roots of entrepreneurship-facilitating culture and innovation activity: An analysis for German regions
There is a research gap with respect to understanding the role of cultural attitudes in favour of entrepreneurial activity for actual start-up behaviour. The paper combines historical self-employment data with a psychological measure for entrepreneurial attitudes. The results reveal a positive relationship between the historical level of self-employment in a region and the presence of people with an entrepreneurial personality structure today. Th…
Entrepreneurship culture, knowledge spillovers and the growth of regions
Entrepreneurship culture, knowledge spillovers and the growth of regions. Regional Studies. An extensive literature has emerged in regional studies linking organization-based measures of entrepreneurship (e.g., self-employment, new start-ups) to regional economic performance. A limitation of the extant literature is that the measurement of entrepreneurship is not able to incorporate broader conceptual views, such as behaviour, of what actually co…
The regional distribution and correlates of an entrepreneurship-prone personality profile in the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom: A socioecological perspective
In recent years the topic of entrepreneurship has become a major focus in the social sciences, with renewed interest in the links between personality and entrepreneurship. Taking a socioecological perspective to psychology, which emphasizes the role of social habitats and their interactions with mind and behavior, we investigated regional variation in and correlates of an entrepreneurship-prone Big Five profile. Specifically, we analyzed personal…
In the shadow of coal: How large-scale industries contributed to present-day regional differences in personality and well-being
Recent research has identified regional variation of personality traits within countries but we know little about the underlying drivers of this variation. We propose that the Industrial Revolution, as a key era in the history of industrialized nations, has led to a persistent clustering of well-being outcomes and personality traits associated with psychological adversity via processes of selective migration and socialization. Analyzing data from…
Historical industrialisation, path dependence and contemporary culture: The lasting imprint of economic heritage on local communities
Culture matters for regional economic development and is one source of cognitive lock-in that influences path creation and dependency. However, little is known about the sources of regional variation in culture. This study explores the long-term imprinting effect of the Industrial Revolution on cultural practices across local communities in Great Britain. Historical data from 1891 on the employment in large-scale industries (e.g. textiles and ste…
Psychological Openness and the Emergence of Breakthrough vs. Incremental Innovations: A Regional Perspective
Breakthrough innovations are expected to have a bigger impact on local economies than incremental innovations do. Yet past research has largely neglected the regional drivers of breakthrough innovations. Building on theories that highlight the role of personality psychology and human agency in shaping regional innovation cultures, we focus on psychological openness as a potential explanation for why some regions produce more breakthrough innovati…
Scientists’ transition to academic entrepreneurship: Economic and psychological determinants
Regional personality differences predict variation in early Covid-19 infections and mobility patterns indicative of social distancing
The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed stark regional variation in the spread of the virus. While previous research has highlighted the impact of regional differences in sociodemographic and economic factors, we argue that regional differences in social and compliance behaviors-the very behaviors through which the virus is transmitted-are critical drivers of the spread of COVID-19, particularly in the early stages of the pandemic. Com…
Local housing market dynamics predict rapid shifts in cultural openness: A 9-year study across 199 cities
Accumulating evidence suggests that culture changes in response to shifting socioecological conditions; economic development is a particularly potent driver of such change. Previous research has shown that economic development can induce slow but steady cultural changes within large cultural entities (e.g., countries). Here we propose that economically driven culture change can occur rapidly, particularly in smaller cultural entities (e.g., cites…
Entrepreneurship from a Developmental Science Perspective
Due to worldwide social, political, and economic change (Silbereisen & Chen, 2010), entrepreneurship has become a key topic of our time (Hisrich, Langan-Fox, & Grant, 2007).We understand entrepreneurship as starting and growing one's own business (or, more broadly, as the identification, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities, Shane, 2012).Globalization, post-industrial society, rapid technological progress, the deregulation of the labor m…
Social Competencies in Childhood and Adolescence and Entrepreneurship in Young Adulthood: A Two-study Analysis
Contributing to the literature on early precursors of entrepreneurship, this study investigated the role of early social competencies for an entrepreneurial career choice and entrepreneurial success in young adulthood. We utilized data from the British Cohort Study and the Thuringian Founder Study (Germany), thereby comparing results across countries, study designs (e.g., retrospective vs. prospective), and concepts of early social competencies a…
Scientists’ transition to academic entrepreneurship: Economic and psychological determinants
The regional distribution and correlates of an entrepreneurship-prone personality profile in the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom: A socioecological perspective
In recent years the topic of entrepreneurship has become a major focus in the social sciences, with renewed interest in the links between personality and entrepreneurship. Taking a socioecological perspective to psychology, which emphasizes the role of social habitats and their interactions with mind and behavior, we investigated regional variation in and correlates of an entrepreneurship-prone Big Five profile. Specifically, we analyzed personal…
Regional characteristics, opportunity perception and entrepreneurial activities
Industry structure, entrepreneurship, and culture: An empirical analysis using historical coalfields
Macropsychological Factors Predict Regional Economic Resilience During a Major Economic Crisis
Do macropsychological factors predict “hard” economic outcomes like regional economic resilience? Prior approaches to understanding economic resilience have focused on regional economic infrastructure. In contrast, we draw on research highlighting the key role played by psychological factors in economic behaviors. Using large psychological data sets from the United States ( n = 935,858) and Great Britain ( n = 417,217), we characterize region-lev…
Age, culture, and self-employment motivation
Who Reaps the Benefits of Social Change? Exploration and Its Socioecological Boundaries
We investigated the interplay between the personality trait exploration and objective socioecological conditions in shaping individual differences in the experience of two individual‐level benefits of current social change: new lifestyle options, which arise from the societal trend toward individualization, and new learning opportunities, which accrue from the societal trend toward lifelong learning. We hypothesized that people with higher trait …
Integrating psychological approaches to entrepreneurship: The Entrepreneurial Personality System (EPS)
Entrepreneurship as a twenty-first century skill: Entrepreneurial alertness and intention in the transition to adulthood
A new perspective on entrepreneurial regions: Linking cultural identity with latent and manifest entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship culture, knowledge spillovers and the growth of regions
Entrepreneurship culture, knowledge spillovers and the growth of regions. Regional Studies. An extensive literature has emerged in regional studies linking organization-based measures of entrepreneurship (e.g., self-employment, new start-ups) to regional economic performance. A limitation of the extant literature is that the measurement of entrepreneurship is not able to incorporate broader conceptual views, such as behaviour, of what actually co…
Fear, Populism, and the Geopolitical Landscape: The “Sleeper Effect” of Neurotic Personality Traits on Regional Voting Behavior in the 2016 Brexit and Trump Elections
Two recent electoral results—Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president and the UK’s Brexit vote—have reignited debate on the psychological factors underlying voting behavior. Both campaigns promoted themes of fear, lost pride, and loss aversion, which are relevant to the personality dimension of neuroticism, a construct previously not associated with voting behavior. To that end, we investigate whether regional prevalence of neurotic personality …
Entrepreneurial personalities in political leadership
In the shadow of coal: How large-scale industries contributed to present-day regional differences in personality and well-being
Recent research has identified regional variation of personality traits within countries but we know little about the underlying drivers of this variation. We propose that the Industrial Revolution, as a key era in the history of industrialized nations, has led to a persistent clustering of well-being outcomes and personality traits associated with psychological adversity via processes of selective migration and socialization. Analyzing data from…
Human behaviour and economic growth: A psychocultural perspective on local and regional development
A renewed emphasis on behavioural traits has emerged as a means of explaining regional and local differences in economic performance and development. Given this, the aim of this study is to identify distinct local psychocultural behavioural profiles, and to examine the extent to which these are associated with economic growth. Combining theories of community culture and personality psychology into a holistic spatially oriented perspective, the pa…
Perceived new demands associated with socioeconomic change: A challenge to job security
Our study focuses on everyday manifestations of contemporary socioeconomic change. For a sample of young- and middle-aged German employees gathered in 2008 ( N = 281), we investigate the relationship of perceived rising demands regarding (a) the labor market and (b) the workplace context with subjective job insecurity. Regression analyses reveal a positive effect of rising labor market demands on job insecurity, which is buffered by education. Th…
Entrepreneurial self-efficacy: A systematic review of the literature on its theoretical foundations, measurement, antecedents, and outcomes, and an agenda for future research
Regional variation in courage and entrepreneurship: The contrasting role of courage for the emergence and survival of start‐ups in the United States
OBJECTIVE: There is growing evidence that certain regional personality differences function as important drivers of regional economic development (e.g., via effects on entrepreneurship and innovation activity). The present investigation examines the impact that regional variation in the trait courage has on entrepreneurship. METHOD: Using data from a new large-scale internet-based study, we provide the first psychological map of courage across th…
Confucian” traits, entrepreneurial personality, and entrepreneurship in China: A regional analysis
Historical roots of entrepreneurship-facilitating culture and innovation activity: An analysis for German regions
There is a research gap with respect to understanding the role of cultural attitudes in favour of entrepreneurial activity for actual start-up behaviour. The paper combines historical self-employment data with a psychological measure for entrepreneurial attitudes. The results reveal a positive relationship between the historical level of self-employment in a region and the presence of people with an entrepreneurial personality structure today. Th…
Addressing common method variance and endogeneity in vocational behavior research: A review of the literature and suggestions for future research
Artificial intelligence and big data in entrepreneurship: A new era has begun
Psychological implications of the Covid ‐19 pandemic around the world: Introduction to the special issue
Although psychological researchers have long studied the implications of major crises, the outbreak and spread of the COVID‐19 pandemic have confronted the global community of psychologists and psychological researchers with new challenges. This special issue contributes to the growing empirical literature on the immediate psychological implications of the COVID‐19 pandemic. We present and discuss diverse work from authors that followed our call …
Economics (29 works) · Psychology (27 works) · Entrepreneurship (24 works) · Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences (22 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Personality (18 works) · Political science (16 works) · Big Five personality traits (15 works) · Economic geography (13 works)