ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ADAPTION-INNOVATION THEORY

Interest in the personality of entrepreneurs has grown as we try to better understand the characteristics and attitudes of this economically important group of people. Kirton's Adaption-Innovation (KAI) Theory describes deep-seated differences in styles of creativity, decision making, and problem solving that appear to be relevant to entrepreneurship. Previous studies suggest that entrepreneurs should score higher on the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory than non-entrepreneurs. To test this hypothesis, and to confirm that KAI scores do not change as a result of training, we administered the KAI to 34 business students in a class in entrepreneurship at the beginning and end of the semester. A control group of 24 students received the same treatment. As hypothesized, the mean KAI scores for the entrepreneurship class were higher than both the population at large and the control group, and did not change systematically over time.