Evaluating Mindset as a Means of Measuring Personal Innovativeness

This article describes the creation and testing of an Innovator Mindset instrument for assessing personal innovativeness, using an Innovativeness Index. Its design is based on the Valuable Novelty Theory of innovation, and expands on that theory by applying it to human behavior and cognition. The design and methodology is explained, along with some of the instrument's theoretical and practical implications for fostering innovation. This is the second of three articles that together describe a hypothetical-deductive approach. The first article A Proposed Cross-Disciplinary Theory of Innovation and Innovativeness Generalized from Innovation Archetypes lays out the Valuable Novelty Theory and the Innovation Cycle. The third article Personal Innovativeness as a Predictor of Entrepreneurial Value Creation uses the instrument described here to predict innovation success.