Innovation is a driving force in terms of enhancing individual core competencies, fostering social progress, and promoting economic growth. Innovation behavior encompasses all actions involved in the generation of innovative ideas, through to their realization. This study employs a meta-analytic approach to examine the relationship between personality traits and innovation behavior, as well as the potential moderating factors involved. A systematic search of relevant literature in both Chinese and English was conducted, and a total of 91 papers met the inclusion criteria. In total, 399 correlations with a combined sample size of 32,786 were analyzed using the metafor package. The results showed that the four dimensions of the Big Five personality model—agreeableness, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness—were significantly and positively correlated with innovation behavior. Neuroticism was weakly and negatively associated with innovation behavior. Moderator analyses revealed that the sample type (student vs. employee) and the personality measurement instrument (BFI vs. IPIP) significantly influenced the relationship between openness and innovation behavior. These findings underscore the strong connection between core personality traits and innovation behavior, particularly emphasizing the importance of openness.
Zhu et al. (2025) studied this question.