Purpose The purpose of this paper is to extend the prevailing literature on the relationship between personality and individual performance (IP) through the mediation of intrapreneurial behavior (IB). This study, therefore, integrated the traits theory and the psychological entrepreneurship theory to improve the IP of medium enterprise (ME) managers by examining the mediating role of IB on the relationship between big five personality traits five factor model (FFM) and IP. Design/methodology/approach The paper used the survey method of data collection, through self-administered questionnaire. Partial least square structural equation modeling method was used to analyze the result of the sample of 355 production/operations managers. Findings The result study shows that three big five personality traits (conscientiousness, disagreeableness and emotional stability) have a direct relationship with IB. However, IB positively mediates the relationship between conscientiousness, disagreeableness and emotional stability on IP of production/operation managers. Practical implications The result implies that positive relationship between personality traits (conscientiousness, disagreeableness and emotional stability) and work performance will manifest better, only when the IB is encouraged among managers. Originality/value To the best knowledge of the authors, this paper is the first to examine the mediating effect of individual IB on FFM – IP relationship. Studies on IB were also limited especially in developing countries, Africa and specifically Nigeria. As such, individual IB requires the attention of researchers and managers in MEs against the assumption that entrepreneurial orientation is a firm-level activity only.

Though a substantial number of researches have been documented between psychological safety, psychological empowerment and individual level performance, the manner through which these relationships transpires is scarcely studied, principally as regards to individual performance of middle managers in medium enterprises. To address this shortfall and to expound further on these relationships, several researchers proposed mediating variables to better explain the relationship between these variables. Accordingly, this paper proposes intrapreneurial behavior as a mediating variable on the psychological safety, psychological empowerment and individual level performance relationships of middle managers in Nigerian medium enterprises. Psychological safety, psychological empowerment and intrapreneurial behavior relationships have been deliberated, followed by the intrapreneurial behavior and middle manager successful performance relationship and lastly the proposed mediating role of intrapreneurial behavior on the psychological safety, psychological empowerment and individual level performance relationships.

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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to extend the existing literature on the relationship between psychological empowerment and individual performance (IP) through the mediating role of intrapreneurial behaviour (IB). Therefore, the empowerment theory (ET) and psychological entrepreneurship theory (PET) were integrated to nurture the IP of medium enterprises (MEs) production/operations managers by analyzing the mediating influence of IB on the psychological empowerment–IP relationship.Design/methodology/approachSurvey method was engaged by means of self-administered questionnaire. Data were collected from a sample of 355 MEs production/operations managers and analysed with partial least square (PLS) structural equation modelling (SEM).FindingsAccording to the results, Psychological empowerment (PE) has a significant direct relationship with both IB and IP. Equally, IB has a positive significant impact on IP. Moreover, the mediating influence of IB on the psychological empowerment–IP relationship was established.Practical implicationsThe result implies that MEs can stimulate the IP of production/operations managers by encouraging IB through psychological empowerment–IP relationship. Therefore, the psychological empowerment–IP relationship will manifest better when IB is invigorated among production/operations managers.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to examine the mediating influence of IB on the psychological empowerment–IP relationship, which revealed a significant contribution to both entrepreneurship and organizational behaviour literature. The IB literature is relatively lacking, particularly among developing countries and in particular Nigeria.

PurposeThe objective of this paper is to extend the extant literature on the relationship between psychological safety (PS) and individual performance (IP) through the mediating influence of intrapreneurial behavior (IB). Therefore, the social exchange theory (SET) and psychological entrepreneurship theory (PET) are integrated to achieve this objective.Design/methodology/approachSurvey method of data collection was engaged through self-administered questionnaire. The sample of 355 medium enterprises (MEs) production/operations managers was analyzed by means of partial least square (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM).FindingsThe result shows that PS has a significant direct relationship with both IP and IB; likewise, IB has a significant positive influence on IP. The mediating influence of IB on the PS–IP relationship was also confirmed.Practical implicationsThe result suggests that PS–IP relationship will be better explained when IB is fortified among managers. Therefore, MEs could stimulate production/operations manager performance by encouraging IB through PS–IP relationship.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to study the influence of individual-level PS on the complete individual-level IB and the mediating influence of individual IB on PS–IP relationship. Moreover, the intraprenerurship literature is relatively lacking expressly among developing countries and precisely Nigeria. As such, the attention of researchers is important on the role of individual-level IB in MEs against the assumption that entrepreneurial events are limited to firm-level concerns.