ENTREPRENEURS’ CONFIDENCE IN INNOVATION AND THEIR INNOVATIVENESS

This article tests the hypothesis that entrepreneurs’ confidence in innovation has a positive effect on their innovativeness. The sample is 550 owner managers sampled from the population of owner managers in Iran in 2010, surveyed in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM. An organizational innovation confidence index is constructed from three questions asking whether the organization that they work in is likely to buy products or services that are new, use new technologies in their daily work, and use new products and services that will improve their working life. Innovation is measured by two questions asking if customers consider the product or service new and unfamiliar, if the technologies or procedures required for the product or service are new. Using structural equations modeling, we conclude that there is a positive effect of organizational innovation confidence on innovation. Therefore, the Iranian owner managers who have more confidence in innovation act more innovatively.