In the middle of the last century personality traits became both fashionable and popular as an explanation of both entrepreneurial behaviours and intentions. The reasons for this are many, but perhaps overriding was the feeling that this branch of theory simply made sense . The influence of intuitive appeal should not be underestimated, and this had the powerful effect of focusing research interest in this area. The argument went something as follows - entrepreneurial behaviours involve a high level of risk, creative solutions are often required, and a certain level of ambition is also needed. These descriptions of the demands related to the behaviours all sounded like personality traits, the corollary here being that a certain kind of person would be attracted to these behaviours, whereas other people would choose safer, more conformist avenues of employment. So far, so good you might say, except that it was here that the problems began. Many researchers simply assumed that entrepreneurs had different personalities, and others who investigated these hypotheses empirically generated equivocal results. The bubble had burst, and by the end of the 1980s opinion had clearly shifted away from explanations centred on the individual, towards theories that stressed the environment and the social backdrop to entrepreneurial behaviours. The rejection of personality traits was somewhat extreme, but appeared justifiable in the light of the lack of empirical support and the comparative success of models that were more situationally sensitive. What should not be overlooked, however, is that the validity of this conclusion partly depends on the validity of the research used to discredit the model itself. Was this research technically robust by modern standards? If not, then the force of this argument is radically undermined, and the implications of this are wide-ranging.