Business Administration / Διοίκηση Επιχειρήσεων (Μ.Β.Α)

The aim of this study is to discover the relationship between innovativeness and risk tolerance, as well as the prevalence of these personality traits among entrepreneurs in Cyprus. This study has three main objectives. To measure the extent of innovativeness among Cypriot entrepreneurs in comparison to the general population. To measure the extent of risk tolerance among Cypriot entrepreneurs in comparison to the general population. To determine the relationship between innovativeness and risk tolerance among Cypriot entrepreneurs. This study has adopted a deductive research approach, with a quantitative methodology to analyse data gather through the use of a questionnaire that measures risk tolerance and innovativeness among two groups: entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. A convenience sampling method was chosen, with the final number of respondents being 80, with 44 entrepreneurs and 36 non entrepreneurs. This study has found that entrepreneurs scored higher in comparison with non-entrepreneurs in both risk tolerance and innovativeness. Furthermore, it has been found that there is an interplay between risk tolerance and innovativeness, as they are positively correlated with one another. This study has further found that risk tolerance has an impact on the decision one takes to become an entrepreneur, making it a likely antecedent. Risk tolerance appear to a pre-existing personality trait for entrepreneurs. However, the same cannot be said for innovativeness, as this study did not find it to be a deciding factor in being an entrepreneur. Additionally, social risk tolerance has not been found to have a statistically significant impact on the decision to be an entrepreneur. This points to the idea that despite the emphasis placed on the extrovert personalities of entrepreneurship in research in other countries, in Cyprus itis not an important determinant of being an entrepreneur.