A Study on Individual Characteristics of Entrepreneurs Affecting Market Orientation and Technology Orientation of New Enterprises

After examining the various perspectives concerning individual characteristics of entrepreneurs including personality traits and characteristics through a literature review, for the purpose of finding out managerial implication on practice, this paper divides individual characteristics of entrepreneurs into two dimensions: inherited elements(e.g. extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability of big five factors of personality) and acquired elements(e.g. education, experience). It then tested the hypotheses of causal relationships between individual characteristics and strategic orientation(market- and technology orientation) of new enterprises. The results of this research show that two composite concepts exert significant influence on market- and technology orientation of new enterprises: agreeable extraversion, conscientious openness of inherited elements. However, none the acquired elements exert such an influence. In addition market- and technology orientation proved to be beneficial to firm performance in terms of satisfaction.