At the Geneva/Fribourg Entrepreneurship Forum—an affiliated event of the global congress of the renowned International Council of Small Business (ICSB 2024)—Prof. Dr. Marco Furtner presented the paper "Self-leadership: the essential drive for entrepreneurs" during the Entrepreneurial Leadership session.

The international conference, hosted by the School of Management at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland in Fribourg (HSW-FR), brought together founders, business and political leaders, and researchers from various continents to exchange creative and innovative ideas.

The paper on "Self-leadership as a foundational basis for entrepreneurs", authored by Marco Furtner, Simon Liegl, and Kilian Klösel, was based on an empirical study involving 300 participants. It was the first to demonstrate that self-leadership plays a key mediating role between entrepreneurial personality traits (extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, self-efficacy, and internal locus of control) and business-related outcomes (innovativeness and job performance).

The results highlight the vital role of self-leadership in the entrepreneurial context. Whether in the start-up phase or during later stages of business development, self-leadership can positively influence performance and entrepreneurial success. Therefore, aspiring entrepreneurs should place a strong emphasis on training and developing their self-leadership skills.

Students at the University of Liechtenstein stand to benefit directly from these insights, as special focus is already placed on developing self-leadership skills within their academic programs.