Why Do Entrepreneurs Innovate Better Than Managers?

netbuzz writes "New research from MIT suggests that entrepreneurs innovate better than managers not because they try more often but rather because when they do try they apply more of their available brainpower to the task. 'We found, somewhat surprisingly, that managers and entrepreneurs did not differ in the probability with which they would undertake explorative (potentially innovative) courses of action. But when entrepreneurs did select explorative tasks, they used both the left and right sides of the frontal cortex of their brain whereas managers only used their left parts of the frontal cortex,' says the lead researcher, MIT Sloan School of Management Visiting Prof. Maurizio Zollo. This is an important difference, he notes, 'because the right side of the frontal cortex is associated with creative thinking, involving to a larger extent emotional processes, whereas the left side is associated with rational decision-making and logic.'"

Comments

Re:coz they get more excited?

[beh]

Good points, anonymous coward... :-)

There may be a second point - it seems the study may see it the wrong way around: I'm not a manager, but I do have ideas on how we can improve things at various employers; I guess many, probably even most, people have ideas on how to improve a business - or a new idea for some other business. But not everyone feels they have the business acumen to become entrepreneurs.

Don't you think that having ideas comes first? How many people go out to become entrepreneurs without _any_ clue what they want to do?

The second point is also cultural - as a manager within a company you have some power in shaping your team and the culture within your team. But that's only true if the team starts with you. If you 'inherit' a team, you first need to ensure you get the culture you want - otherwise, like anon coward wrote, you have more time to spend 'defending' your ideas (and why they should take away time from your normal work), rather than being free to shape everything - as far as your budget constraints allow.