The impact of entrepreneurial personality characteristics of health managers on corporate performance of hospitals: A survey on the private hospitals operating in Istanbul

The main goal of this research is to identify the direct and indirect relationships and interactions between the entrepreneurial personality characteristics of hospital managers and the corporate performances of hospitals through the exploratory and confirmatory analysis methods, and to develop the confirmatory character models based on these relations. The research population is the middle and/or senior executives of the private hospitals operating in the province of Istanbul within the scope of T.C. Ministry of Health Private Health Institutions General Hospitals. Quantitative research method (quantitative research design) was conducted and the data were obtained by face-to-face survey technique. Total number of questionnaires, taken into consideration and used in the data analysis, is 430. The main statistical analyses used in the study are; descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, multiple regression analysis, the difference tests, confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis. SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 22.0 software packages were used to analyze the data. The results of the study generaly reflects the perspectives of the middle and/or senior managers of private hospitals with and without JCI Quality and Accreditation Certificate that placed in the Istanbul province within the scope of T.C. Ministry of Health Private Health Institutions General Hospitals. Direct relations for the variables included in the research model (two models); the entrepreneurship characteristic representing the entrepreneurial personality profiles of the managers at the best level is the tendency to take risk. According to the managers, the most important dimension that indicates the corporate performance level of a hospital is the internal processes performance factor. Direct relations for the variables included in the research model (two models); it has been determined that the characteristics of risk taking tendency of the entrepreneurial personality traits of the managers positively and significantly affect the corporate performance of the hospital with all dimensions (financial performance-patient performance-internal process performance-learning/development performance). It was determined that the financial performance of hospitals; the characteristics of risk taking tendency from entrepreneurial personality traits has a significant and positive effect; characteristics of achievement requirement tendency and internal locus of control tendency were affected significantly and negatively. It was determined that the patient performance of hospitals; the characteristic of risk taking tendency from entrepreneurial personality traits has a significant and positive effect; characteristic of ambiguity tolerance tendency affects significantly and negatively. It was determined that the internal processes performance of hospitals; the characteristics of risk taking tendency from entrepreneurial personality traits has a significant and positive effect; characteristics of achievement requirement tendency affects significantly and negatively. It was determined that the learning/development performance of hospitals; the characteristics of risk taking tendency, being self-confidence and autonomy tendency from entrepreneurial personality traits have a significant and positive effect; characteristics of achievement requirement tendency and innovation tendency have a significant and negative effect. Key Words: Health Managers, Entrepreneurial Personality Characteristics, Corporate Performance, Private Hospitals, Istanbul.