Title: Founder-entrepreneurs' personality characteristics and their influence on risk strategies within high-tech software SMEs in China

Authors: Yanzhi Huang; Bidyut Baruah; Tony Ward

Addresses: Department of Electronic Engineering, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK ' Department of Electronic Engineering, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK ' Department of Electronic Engineering, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK

Abstract: Although the Chinese high-tech market has grown rapidly in recent years, only a limited number of entrepreneurial studies have focused on these areas particularly the significant role of founder-entrepreneurs and the impact of their personality characteristics during their company's development. Now with COVID-19 and its complexity, there are various ongoing challenges for these founder-entrepreneurs something which needs further research. To fill this gap, this study selected nine successful Chinese high-tech software SMEs with an objective to understand the risk attitude and strategies of their founder-entrepreneurs. And as part of the study, the Chinese Big Five Personality Inventory Brief Version (CBF-PI-B) was chosen. The analysis showed how different personality traits such as neuroticism, agreeableness and openness can have a high impact on founder-entrepreneurs' risk attitude, decision making and strategy selection. This paper makes an important contribution to the literature on Chinese SMEs and risk management during COVID-19.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; personality traits; Chinese high-tech market; SMEs; risk management; Big-5 personality; China.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBCRM.2023.131860

International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Management, 2023 Vol.13 No.2, pp.138 - 164

Received: 25 Dec 2021
Accepted: 11 Jun 2022
Published online: 04 Jul 2023 *

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