Enhancing Innovation Competencies in Developing Countries: The Role of Resilience and Personality Traits

Enhancing innovative competences has been considered as important learning goal in higher education due to growing needs for professional skills in the 21st century that makes the life challenging and stressful. To cope with this stress, individual needs to be resilient which can be affected by personality traits. This study aims to determine the relationship between personality traits and innovative competences through the mediating role of resilience. A survey was created, and 521 responses were collected through self-reported questionnaires from three developing countries namely, Russia, Pakistan, and Nigeria. The data was analyzed using Structural equation modeling (SEM) and the results indicate that openness to experience, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness enhanced the resilience and that increases innovative competences including creativity, teamwork, critical thinking, initiative, and networking. Whereas neuroticism decreases the resilience, and which negatively affects the innovative competences. Therefore, we can conclude from the findings of this study that individuals high on openness to experience and conscientiousness are better able to cope with the stress associated with failures because of their rich experience with similar situations and can create the much-desired solutions to problem. Besides, with larger social network, extraverted people can increase their resilience level and ultimately enhances the innovative competence. In contrast, neuroticism personalities are overreactive and emotional instable that might make them less resilient and their therefore reduce their level of teamwork, networking, and creativity.