PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF INNOVATORS — AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF ROLES IN INNOVATION MANAGEMENT

Abstract

First and foremost, innovation is driven by people. These people have specific personal characteristics and fulfil designated roles in innovation management. We have conducted an empirical study among 190 employees in R&D departments of mature international firms from four different countries (Germany, U.S.A., Great Britain and Switzerland) currently working on innovation projects. Using multivariate analyses, we could identify personal characteristics associated with different roles people can take over the course of an innovation project. These roles are called expert, power, process or relationship promotor as well as champion. The identified personal characteristics exhibit a distinctive pattern in their combined occurrence for each role. Our results show a detailed picture of specific personal characteristics of individuals, so called innovators, necessary for successful innovation. Based on these findings, we derive recommendations for a targeted human resource acquisition and a better selection of employees for successful innovation teams.