The role of personality in SMEs internationalization: empirical evidence

Purpose This paper aims to examine the role of owners/managers' big five personality traits: conscientiousness, openness, extroversion, neuroticism and agreeableness on SMEs internationalization. Design/methodology/approach The research design is a quantitative approach. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 303 owners and managers of Pakistani SMEs. The hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling using AMOS. Findings The findings reveal that conscientiousness has an insignificant influence on the degree of internationalization while neuroticism has a significant negative influence on internationalization. Extroversion, openness and agreeableness have a significant positive influence on internationalization. The findings disclose that owners and managers with extrovert, openness and agreeable personality are more likely to enter into international markets, while managers and owners with conscientiousness and neuroticism personality do not endorse entry into foreign markets. Practical implications The results suggest that not all the personality traits facilitate internationalization process. Hence, firms that intend to enter international markers can benefit from hiring extrovert, open and agreeable personalities as managers to achieve their objectives. While managers with conscientiousness and neuroticism can be gainfully employed in other departments, they should be kept away from the decision-making processes leading to internationalization of a firm's operations. In addition, the insights gained from this study could facilitate CEOs and executives of large firms operating in developing and developed markets to design effective strategies to promote and get the advantages of internationalization process. Originality/value This research contributes to personality literature, upper echelons theory and internationalization theory by testing the model based on the empirical evidence. This research is an intersection of the international entrepreneurship literature and psychological studies that have remained relatively unattended in prior studies. After extensive search, we have concluded that no previous study has as yet explored the role of big five personality traits in SMEs internationalization, particularly in this part of the world. It is believed that lack of studies in this sphere is, to a considerable extent, impeding the pace of internationalization by SMEs in developing countries.