Founder-entrepreneurs' personality characteristics and their influence on risk strategies within high-tech software SMEs in China

Although the Chinese high-tech market has grown rapidly in recent years, only a limited number of entrepreneurial studies have focused on these areas particularly the significant role of founder-entrepreneurs and the impact of their personality characteristics during their company's development. Now with COVID-19 and its complexity, there are various ongoing challenges for these founder-entrepreneurs something which needs further research. To fill this gap, this study selected nine successful Chinese high-tech software SMEs with an objective to understand the risk attitude and strategies of their founder-entrepreneurs. And as part of the study, the Chinese Big Five Personality Inventory Brief Version (CBF-PI-B) was chosen. The analysis showed how different personality traits such as neuroticism, agreeableness and openness can have a high impact on founder-entrepreneurs' risk attitude, decision making and strategy selection. This paper makes an important contribution to the literature on Chinese SMEs and risk management during COVID-19.