Prof. Dr. David Bendig from the Institute of Entrepreneurship, together with Dr. Sebastian Kruse and Prof. Dr. Malte Brettel from RWTH Aachen University, recently published an article entitled "How Does CEO Decision Style Influence Firm Performance? The Mediating Role of Speed and Innovativeness in New Product Development" in the Journal of Management Studies (VHB JQ3: A, Financial Times 50).

The success of large American companies such as Amazon, Apple, or Tesla is often attributed to the personality and decision-making behavior of their managers. But does this relationship also apply to German SMEs? A new study based on data from 1,046 medium-sized companies in Germany answers this question. It shows that companies whose managers pursue perfectionist standards have faster innovation processes. At the same time, however, companies with simplified decision-making processes through rules of thumb also face accelerated innovation processes. Due to the acceleration of the innovation process, both cognitive mechanisms are associated with higher company performance. 

Overall, the study shows that the decision-making styles of managers also influence the speed of innovation and thus the performance of companies in the German SME sector.

The full text of the study is available here.