Personality traits of entrepreneurial top management team members and new venture performance

Management practitioners and leadership experts regard personality traits as important attributes of individual, team, and organizational performance. However, few scholars have studied the inner workings of the performance of a new venture as regards the personality traits of the entrepreneurial top management team (TMT). We investigated 156 entrepreneurial TMTs of new ventures in China’s Optical Valley, and found that: (a) the entrepreneurial TMT’s extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience all have a positive impact on a new venture’s performance, but neuroticism did not; (b) Knowledge integration had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between the TMT’s extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience and the performance of the venture; (c) A transformational leadership style of entrepreneurial TMT leaders was found to significantly moderate the relationship between the TMT’s extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience and the new venture’s performance. The findings not only contribute to theories of entrepreneurial TMT, team personality composition, and knowledge management, but also have practical significance for improving the performance of new ventures.