Personality Trait and Innovation Performance of Micro and Small Enterprises

Abstract

Micro and small enterprises have gained increasing attention in the innovation literature. However, empirical studies on the factors that influence the innovative performance of these enterprises are still at infancy. Exceptional innovative performance of MSEs may be determined by the personality trait of the business owner/manager. This study is a pilot survey conducted on a few numbers (N = 38) of micro and small manufacturing, service and retail enterprises in Kano, Nigeria. A questionnaire was distributed to explore the potential influence of personality trait on micro and small enterprise innovation performance. Cronbach’s alpha test is employed to measure the internal consistency of the instrument. The findings of this study encourage further testing and conclude that most measures have high reliability scores ranging from.63 to.89. This suggests the possibility of applying the instrument among MSEs in Kano, Nigeria.