Entrepreneurial Intensity and Innovativeness in SMEs

Academics and practitioners have increasingly been paying attention to process innovation as a means of improving the competitive positioning of manufacturing firms. It is only recently that this attention has turned to the small manufacturing firms. Results from an empirical study indicate that the level of entrepreneurial intensity differs with the organizational status of CEOs. Further, CEOs’ organizational status strongly influences the link between entrepreneurial intensity and the degree of process innovativeness of the small firm. In particular, this link is strongest in the case of owner-founders and is weakest in the case of CEOs who were brought in from outside by a head office.