The Influence of Managers’ Personality on Innovation Deployment: Evidence from Small Business

Abstract

The firm’s involvement in innovation became a necessary attribute in order to remain competitive and successful. Not surprisingly, the adop-tion of innovations has emerged as one of the dominant research topics in the management of innovations in organizations, though investigations often yield mixed results. However, innovation is still considered a hallmark of big companies only. This study aims to hint the gap of knowledge related to the association between the owners and managers’ personality traits and innovation orientation of small business. The empirical research includes data from two hundred small businesses in different branches of industry. The results interestingly showed that high levels of both conscientiousness and extraversion among owners/managers have positive, but insignificant, impacts on the performance of their small enterprises. The knowledge acquired is critical to organizational innovation and yields lessons that can be used to transform how individual contributors are leveraged within organizations. Implications for practice are also discussed.