The Effects of Entrepreneurial Personality to Competitiveness and Corporate Image: A Study on Chocolate Agent Entrepreneurs

This study investigates the entrepreneur personalities of chocolate agents and their effect on competitiveness and corporate image. The object of the study is chocolate agent resellers which are spread throughout Indonesia. The total sample is 110 entrepreneurs who work as company agents. The method used is survey confirmatory method. From this research, seven entrepreneurial personalities that can increase competitiveness and corporate image are found. The practical implication is that companies’ managerial need to set up criteria for agent recruitment and to be selective in choosing agents. The chosen agents must be trained continually to develop their personality traits such as the ability to think positively, develop leadership traits, be open-minded, have consciousness of the importance of business, be friendly, give good service, be independent, and be able to reach targets.


INTRODUCTION
As a developing country with a lot of resources and a total population of 260 million lives in 2018, Indonesia needs more entrepreneurs. Indonesian Government is targeting 2% of Indonesia's population to become entrepreneurs (Radjasa, 2014), which means Indonesia needs around 5 million entrepreneurs. In comparison, the number of entrepreneurs in developed countries has surpassed that number. As an example, in 2013 the number of aspiring entrepreneurs in the USA reached 11.5% of the total population, 7.2% in Singapore, 10% in China, and 4% in Malaysia (Kementrian and UKM, 2013).
The Indonesian Government is trying to cultivate new entrepreneurs by making several policies to support it. Literature studies show most Indonesian entrepreneurs don't have the knowledge of what should be done and how to achieve their goals. They are also lack of knowledge about managing a business well, which leads to the business debacle. An observation on a group of an entrepreneur works as chocolate reseller shows that most of the entrepreneurs run their business based solely on instinct. They are incapable of controlling their outcome, and they make an irrational and risky decision. This proofs that most of the Indonesian entrepreneurs have a personality problem. Other than personality problems, an entrepreneur should also have sufficient assets and skills to start a business. Another study proves that not every personality trait determines a person's work performance (Hurtz and Donovan, 2000;Li et al., 2012;Sjoberg et al., 2005;Westerman and Simmons, 2007). Sidik (2012) concludes that the relation between an entrepreneur's character and his or her company's performance is still unconvincing. It is because of the challenges that entrepreneurs face varies in each domain. take advantage of opportunities by joining another corporation, becoming a partner of a business, becoming a distributor, or agent and reseller of a notable product. Agent, reseller, and distributor are parts of business process flows. They are the intermediaries which facilitate the arrival of an item to the hands of ultimate consumers.
In accordance with the research object, there are a lot of company agents that spread throughout Indonesia. Company agents are entrepreneurs (similar to start-up) which operate in various industrial fields. One of them is the culinary business field with chocolate as its main basic ingredient. Agents are the ones who make direct contact with the ultimate consumers.
Observation from the field shows that in the last decade, there is a significant decrease in chocolate food sales in Indonesia. Some of the suspected causes are not enough promotion from the agents, the lack of initiative, the tendency to wait for the producer to make advertisements to attract consumers, the lack of information from agents about events that the producer holds, and the lack of enthusiasm in serving the consumer. This affects the competitiveness of the company and consumer trust (corporate image). This also affects the decrease in the company's turnover.
The fact above gives the first image of how the failure of a producer is not only affected by the producer itself, but also by the people involved in the business process flow, such as the agents, distributors, resellers, and also the personality of the company agents. Dvir et al., (2010) find that entrepreneurs manage their businesses based on their personalities. Personality is a particular characteristic that is owned by an entrepreneur. Researchers have found that entrepreneurial personality consists of: Extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness (Caldwell and Burger, 1997;Gohary and Hanzaee, 2014;Ongore, 2014), and risk-taking (Marbun in Alma, 2011;Suryana, 2011). However, there are still other factors that are owned by entrepreneurs. Sidik (2012); Abdullah et al., (2016) says that a person's personality is determined by many factors. There are some factors that haven't been investigated by researchers, which are: Idealistic character, independent learner, honesty, etc. Thus, this research needs to be done in order to investigate the relationship between those factors with competitiveness and corporate image.

LITERATURE REVIEW
An entrepreneur is someone who has the courage to start a business with all the benefits and risks. An entrepreneur is independent and has the ability to independently run his or her business activities. To be an entrepreneur, enough funds/capital and a certain personality are needed. An entrepreneur is a person who is able to look for opportunities, create new businesses, innovate to create added value that benefits customers and all stakeholders, uses their intuition, takes risks and handles various problems in business (Bikse et al., 2015;Bujor and Avasilcai, 2016). An entrepreneur is always thinking about something new (creative) and doing something new (innovative) to create value-added products for consumers.
In realizing his or her goals, an entrepreneur will build his or her businesses individually. He or she utilizes the expertise of others, joins well-known companies, or takes other alternatives such as buying businesses that are already running (Zimmerer et al., 2009). When an entrepreneur joins or acquires the business of others, naturally he or she will still have a certain personality. An entrepreneur always innovates, improves a situation, and look for something new all the time (Langviniene and Daunoraviciute, 2015). In searching for new ideas, an entrepreneur will pay attention to effectiveness and efficiency as well as cooperation with other parties that are mutually beneficial.
Entrepreneurs have certain personalities that make them different from others. Personality is an interpersonal process and consistent patterns of behavior that are inherited by each individual. It can potentially be used in achieving business goals (Ahmadkhani et al., 2012;Irengun and Arikboga, 2015;Lijun et al., 2014). Lijun et al. (2014. p. 128) states: "Personality is used to indicate the personal thoughts, feelings and behavior patterns, making the individual with special qualities different from others in a considerable time and in a consistent manner. Personality is a psychological phenomenon, in general the personality of some people shows apparently, while some are not revealed, but kept deeply inside." The characteristics of entrepreneurial personality are: Positive thinking, have a business vision, want to take risks, know the desired target, have a good memory, happy to make new ideas, independent, have confidence, composed, optimistic, honest, able to predict, can take decisions, friendly, polite, assertive and knowledgeable about the business they work at. The variants of entrepreneurial personality can be developed from various sides. In his research in the United States, Marbun (in Alma, 2011. p. 52) states that the traits that are needed to be owned by an entrepreneur are self-confidence, results-oriented, risk-taking, leadership, originality and future-oriented.
The concept of entrepreneurial personality was first developed by Paul Costa and Robert McRae in 1985, which was continued by other researchers from various nations with a different focus. The five personality factors are "extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness" (Caldwell and Burger, 1997;Gohary and Hanzaee, 2014;Ongore, 2014). This model is better known as the "Five Factor Model" or "Big Five Personality Model." Mkoji and Sikalieh (2012. p. 184) prove that various personality factors have a positive impact on business performance. There are a lot of factors or dimensions that determine the personality of an entrepreneur (Sidik, 2012. p. 375). Entrepreneurs who think more positively, have leadership skills, think openly, friendly, have selfcontrol and dare to take risks will easily reach the company's goals. Some business performances include turnover, competitiveness, and corporate image.
The researchers' founding shows that a person's success in entrepreneurship is related to the big five personalities owned by entrepreneurs (Bujor and Avasilcai, 2016;Irengun and Arikboga, 2015;Pokrajcic, 2004). Suryana (2011. p. 56) finds one more factor of personality which is risk-taking as the sixth factor of personality trait. It develops into many entrepreneurial personality factors as follows: 1. Neuroticism (positive thinking). Neuroticism is a factor showing the balance of a person's emotions. Each person has negative emotions such as irritability, sadness, anxiety, and others. People who have high emotions tend to have sudden emotional changes. In this factor, an entrepreneur needs to control his emotions in order to remain calm, confident, think constructively and focus on the main goal, so that his behavior is beneficial to launch his business 2. Extravert (leadership). Extravert is a factor that is needed to be owned by a person to lead a company, such as: Gregarious, assertive and trustworthy. Suryana (2011. p. 56) says that the leadership skill in business includes: Like looking for new opportunities, having a vision, open-minded/willing to accept input and advice. In business, leadership skill is one of the key factors to influence others to work according to company goals and synergize with other parties 3.
Openness. An open personality is an important factor for entrepreneurs. Inquisitive nature, happy to make ideas, the ability to adapt their ideas to the environment, adapt to the market are the characteristics that are needed by entrepreneurs. "The constancy of change requires intelligence and curiosity to acquire new knowledge (for example technological advances) and innovative thinking to develop new strategies, so that openness will be able to anticipate the failure of business goals" (Ciavarella et al., 2004. p. 465). On the other hand, research by Gohary and Hanzaee (2014. p. 166) finds that openness behavior encourages consumers to make impulsive repurchases 4. Agreeableness (hospitality). Hospitality is a factor that determines the success of communication. The examples of hospitality are being friendly to consumers, using friendly words in communication, being fun and cooperative, and competing in a healthy manner. Trust can be developed from the start of building a business until the business is developed. Burger (in Irengun and Arikboga, 2015) finds that friendly people preferred to avoid fights and create a conducive environment to do business. Irengun and Arikboga (2015) remind researchers that emotional people tend to be unstable, depressed, and lack of confidence. Alma (2011. p. 109) mentions the ability to communicate and interact is the ability to formulate one's thoughts in a clear, simple, pleasant, and easy to understand utterance that can attract the attention of others. This means good communication must be followed by honesty and consistent behavior in the conversation. Honesty and consistent behavior of businesspeople can be seen in decision making, ideas conveying, and responsibility in carrying out business activities 5. Consciousness (self-control). Self-control is a factor that is owned by each individual which includes: Industrious in achieving business goals, discipline, and responsibility. This factor is predicted to contribute to the increase of competitiveness, company image and company success 6. Risk Taking. The willingness to take risks is a factor that explains a person's tendency to act in an urgent situation, or a business person's willingness to take action in uncertain conditions due to lack of information. A businessman is brave enough to take risks because he has thought about how to minimize risk and of a way out if a problem occurs. Entrepreneur a person who is able to reduce risk or manage risk into something profitable. Business people are required to take risks. It is a valuable practical experience for entrepreneurs 7. Idealist. Idealistic people have confidence in everything they do, including running a business. They are confident in achieving their business goals. This confidence generates morale and independence. They don't want to depend on others. They are able to work individually. In their view, it is senseless to depend on others 8. Independent Learner. Independent learners are people who have the willpower to develop themselves individually, without being taught by others. They self-taught themselves such as learning about technological information, e-business, foreign exchange, etc. independent learners are able to individually study their environment, the public needs, the natural resource, and the community culture. Independent learner's trait makes entrepreneurs able to predict their business in the future and encourage them to achieve business success 9. Honesty. Honesty is part of ethics. Entrepreneurs often apply their personal ethical guidelines when determining what is good and what is not for their company (Cordeiro, 2011). The honesty of a leader can be seen in his/her company's activities. Honesty creates trust. Likewise, the honesty of an entrepreneur creates trust in customers. Honesty is communicating virtue, truth and creating trust in the minds of consumers (Dewi and Dhewanto, 2012). To generate trust in retail consumers, a sense of security and comfort when shopping is also needed.
No consumer wants to shop in an unsafe area (safe from theft, safe from other dangers), even though the retail manager is honest. Honesty is shown in retail management in the form of creating a comfortable and safe environment for consumers.

Resellers, Agents, and Wholesalers
Some producers depend on the sales result of their agents. Company agents are an extension of a company to sell its goods to ultimate consumers. Some companies that act as producers apply strict rules to their agents, but some of them give freedom to their agents (also called independent agents) with certain conditions in their business contracts. A company agent is a form of the business field for new entrepreneurs (start-up). Company agents and retailers have lower risk level and do not require a large capital.
Company agents sell products to retailers (resellers) and/or to ultimate consumers and get a fee from the percentage of their sales. Agents are the representatives of producers. Agents carry out policies according to producers' provisions (Lehmann and Winer, 2005). Company agents are different from wholesalers (distributors), who buy products from producers and then resell them to retailers without restraint. In industries whose activities are still small, there is no clear distinction between agents, resellers, and wholesalers. All functions can be carried out by either of them. This is fitting with the statement from Arens (2006): "resellers include wholesalers and retailers, as well as manufactures representatives, brokers, jobbers, and distributors." From the description above, it is quite clear that the company agents are intermediaries between producers and consumers. They are the representative of producer companies. They get a fee from the number of goods that they sell. They carry out the company's policy because they are its representatives. They provide services and maintain the company's (Arens, 2006;Lehmann and Winer, 2005).

Competitiveness and Corporate Image
Competitiveness is the ability of a person or company to grab attention, meet consumer needs and obtain customer loyalty. The more buyers a product has, the more competitive its producers.
Business is said to be successful if it is superior to its competitors or if it has more value than its competitors. Consumer loyalty can be created if consumers are satisfied with the output produced by a company. Competitiveness needs to be encouraged and grown among entrepreneurs.
The core of competitiveness that must be owned by the company is the ability to innovate (Alahverdi, 2017), create and seize new markets that arise in the community. Moreover, it should be in line with the wishes of consumers in both quantity and quality.
The competitiveness and image of the company are included in the dimensions of a company's success (Hayu and Yudianti, 2002;Noor, 2007).
Companies that are highly competitive tend to have an image in the eyes of consumers or commonly known as corporate image. The company's image is determined by the growth of new customers, how high the level of stakeholders' trust, what is felt and what has been done by the company as its responsibility. The company's image is divided into two; they are internal trust and external trust. Internal trust is trust within the company; it grows and comes from internal stakeholders such as human resources and the shareholders. Bidin et al., (2014. p. 326) have proven that corporate behavior and personality contribute to the company's image. The behavior and personality of the company is an accumulation of the behavior and personality of the people who run the company. Theoretically, the personality of human resources in the company tends to determine the high and low of the company's image and performance (Kim et al., 2017;Pinho and Sampaio, 2014).
From a total of 125 chocolate agents that function as retailers throughout Indonesia, 110 of them are used as samples. One respondent is taken from each agent to fill out a questionnaire.
The chosen respondent is the owner of the director of the related agent. The operational of each variable can be seen in Table 1.
This research uses a confirmatory survey method. The data is analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) and processed using AMOS software. The data is processed through two stages. The first stange is processing all samples with SEM and finding that two parameters (risk-taking and honesty) are not significant. The second stage is dropping the insignificant and modifying the model. From the modification, a fit model is obtained. The design of this research model is shown in Figure 1.

Results
The reliability of research data is considered good when alpha Cronbach is ≥0.7 (Gozali, 2008;Gursida and Chaniago, 2017;Hair et al., 2006). Some parameters obtained from the data processing shows that the alpha Cronbach is still below 0.7. The data are not distributed evenly and the model indicator provides information that the models are identified as not fit.
Data processing is needed to gain data reliability ≥0.7. Using the modification index on Amos software, insignificant factors/ dimensions are dropped from the research model. The factors that are dropped are risk-taking and honesty. Next, the second calculation process is done. The results are shown in Table 2.
The second data calculation using AMOS software gives information that only GFI and AGFI are marginal, the rest are in the good criteria (Table 2). This means that the models that are obtained are fit, but the normality of the data is still not normal (Cr = 9.325). To overcome this, bootstrapping data at 200 data is done. The comparison between before and after bootstrapping shows that the original value < critical value after bootstrapping, or there is no difference between models and data (models fit at bootstrapping of 200). The interrelationships between variables in the research models after bootstrapping are shown in Figure 2. Table 3 shows the total effect of each research variable on the competitiveness and corporate image. Table 3 above provides information that entrepreneurial personality significantly influences competitiveness by 43% and also affects a corporate image by 60%. This influence is included in moderate criteria (Gozali, 2008). On the other hand, the influence of competitiveness on a corporate image is 70% which is included in the strong criteria. This research finds and proves that agreeableness, conscience, openness, extraversion, neuroticism, idealist, and the independent learner contribute and become part of entrepreneurial personality. Entrepreneur personality is proven to have an impact on competitiveness and corporate image. In addition, competitiveness also determines the corporate image. There is no supporting evidence in this study that risk-taking and honesty are part of entrepreneurial personality. These findings reject the findings of Suryana (2011) and Cordeiro (2011) who concluded that risk-taking is part of entrepreneurial personality.

Discussion
The information on Table 3 shows that entrepreneurial personality consists of seven factors. Five factors (agreeableness, consciousness, openness, extraversion, neuroticism) has been researched and found by Hurtz and Donovan (2000); Cartaya (2012); Mkoji and Sikalieh (2012), meanwhile other two factors (the idealist and independent learner factors) are found in this study. The data also proves that risk-taking and honesty factors are not significant attributes to entrepreneurial personality (Figures 1 and 2). The risk-taking factor is rejected as a part of entrepreneur personality because the corporate agents only work as resellers. They don't shoulder a big risk if the products don't sell well. Agents only sell the products and gain fee from the selling. The rest of the products that are not sold will be given back to the producer. The honesty factor is rejected as part of entrepreneurial personality because applying honesty in their business is hard for entrepreneurs. They keep their own secrets, strategy, and tactics. This is necessary to be done in order to excel from their competitors.
The effect of entrepreneur personality to competitiveness and corporate image is caused by the company agents who in carrying out the business activities think positively, are optimistic about achieving business targets, have a vision to move forward (Li et al., 2012), willing to accept advice from consumers, happy to make ideas new ideas to develop their business (Cordeiro, 2011), willing and able to realize ideas (Li et al., 2012) that have been made, are responsible, carry out their duties according to plan, are friendly in attitude and communication, have confidence in success in running a business, do not want to depend on other people/independent (Bikse et al., 2015;Cordeiro, 2011), always read the situation around them for the success of their business.
Other than that, the agents have tried to improve the competitiveness and the corporate image by maintaining the quality of the products that they sell, improving the quality of their service, improving the quantity of the products they sell, maintaining ethics in serving consumer, and planting a positive image/trust to new consumers.
The effect of entrepreneurial personality on competitiveness and corporate image is considered as strong. The findings of this study are in line with Westerman and Simmons (2007) who state that  a person's personality has a direct effect on his success in doing business. Moreover, the findings of this study strengthen the findings of Bidin et al. (2014. p. 326) research which concludes that corporate behavior and personality contribute to the corporate image. The output of this study also supports the researches of Li et al. (2012), Sidik (2012), Hurtz and Donovan (2000), Cartaya (2012) and Mkoji and Sikalieh (2012) who conclude that someone who has entrepreneurial spirit such as optimism, leadership skill, originality (creative ideas), and goal-oriented (business-oriented and consumers-oriented) has an impact on the success of a business, its competitiveness, and corporate image. The greater the entrepreneurial personality is, the better the competitiveness a company has. The rise in competitiveness will increase the corporate image.
There are two reasons why entrepreneurial personality affects competitiveness. The first cause comes from company agents. The company's agents as resellers are not entirely positive and confident in carrying out their business activities. They are somewhat uncertain and not so sure that they earn a large profit and a decent living. company agents have not optimally motivated themselves, have not done their best as company resellers or have not optimally done their activities as resellers. Another cause is that the agents consider this work as their (second job) to occupy their free time. This is the reason they are less persistent in acting as agents and resellers of companies. Whereas Li et al. (2012) have proven that hard work, having a vision, strong will and responsibility are the factors that determine the success of a business.
The results of observations find that some company agents find it difficult to do things that they target themselves, such as giving friendly service, giving fast serving to consumers, is committed to sending orders to consumers, being optimistic and confident of achieving sales targets or taking the initiative to make changes. They even look lazy sometimes. This is because agents still behave as traditional entrepreneurs. Smith et al., (2014) have proven that non-traditional entrepreneurs show that creativity, risk-taking and autonomy work (independent) are much higher than traditionally active entrepreneurs.
This study also found that being optimistic, positive thinking, having a business orientation, like making ideas and running them, friendly, quick, committed and responsible, initiative/creative, independent, enthusiastic and predictive ability is personality requirements needed to be an agent for a company or new entrepreneur. These things, if implemented optimally, will have a positive impact on the corporate image (Cartaya, 2012;Hurtz and Donovan, 2000;Li et al., 2012;Sidik, 2012).
The second cause comes from company policy as a producer such as producers are not selective in choosing agents, the existence of kinship/nepotism element, agents are not planned from the beginning by producers and there are no clear criteria as agents and resellers. Policymakers and business owners should strengthen their personality traits (Ong and Ismail, 2013). In addition, being an agent is not a plan planned from the start, but arises because there are free time and little capital. When prospective entrepreneurs register as agents of the company, they do not do it seriously. It is not something the prospective agents have planned from the start.
The conditions above show that many companies operate without careful planning, such as a new company (startup), including small and medium business groups. This is one of the weaknesses of small businesses in developing countries, such as in Indonesia. To overcome this, company leaders (not company agents) are advised to develop traits that are able to portray extraversion, openness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and agreeableness (Kiarie et al., 2017). While the agents need to develop skills related to the big five personalities, coupled with the idealist and independent learner traits. In other words, agents need to develop big seven personality factors. Ong and Ismail (2013) suggest business owners and managers utilize their own entrepreneurial personality in building and developing their businesses. Klöppel Jr. and Stummer (2015) in Germany have done research on microbusinesses. The results are "the success of microbusinesses is determined by the personality of the entrepreneur, such as work ethic, a strong orientation to customer needs, advertisement readiness and the ability to innovate". The findings of this study are broader than the findings of Klöppel Jr. and Stummer (2015).
Ideally, a company that needs an agent as a reseller should recruit, choose, and train agents to meet their criteria (Bhuian et al., 2013). The development given to the agents should be in line with the criteria of producers, should be customer-oriented, and it should apply the seven factors of entrepreneurial personality in daily business.

CONCLUSION
Agents selling food products are small-scale entrepreneurs. In essence, it is similar to resellers who sell goods directly to consumers. Agents get bigger discounts, have promotion obligations and maintain the good name of the producers. All purchases made by agents are done in cash, so they are similar to distributors in large businesses. The agents have a certain personality as entrepreneurs.
The results of the study prove that the entrepreneur personality affects competitiveness and corporate image. Its influence is quite strong. This effect is not maximized, because the formation of agents as resellers is not planned from the beginning by the producer company, and the recruitment is not done selectively. Producer companies that are able to plan the selection of agents and have criteria about agents will get people (new entrepreneurs) who are suitable and able to increase the competitiveness and corporate image. New entrepreneurs who become agents, only take advantage of free time (only have time, but do not have a good personality) will be difficult to become an entrepreneur. This will eventually become an obstacle in carrying out business activities.
This research proves that "the big seven personalities," which are neuroticism, extraverts, openness, agreeableness, consciousness, idealist and independent learner, are part of the entrepreneurial personality that company agents need to have. Those dimensions have the effect of increasing competitiveness and corporate image.
The practical implication is that companies as producers need to plan and determine the criteria for their agents from the start who. The theoretical implication is that if the entrepreneur personality agent can be directed to think positively, foster leadership traits, think openly, be able to control oneself, friendly, enthusiastic, confident in achieving business goals, idealistic, and willing to continually learn to advance his business, then the competitiveness and corporate image of the company will be easily improved.
This study is limited to agents engaged in certain products, and it does not represent multi-agent companies in Indonesia. It is necessary to conduct more in-depth research representing all company agents in the future, to gain more comprehensive conclusions.