CEO Personality Traits and SME Sustainability[Traits de personnalité du dirigeant et pérennité des petites et moyennes entreprises]

SME sustainability represents a major strategic challenge in African economies, where failure rates remain high. This study examines the influence of owner-managers' personality traits, operationalized through the Big Five model (Costa & McCrae, 1992), on Cameroonian SME sustainability, conceptualized as a multidimensional construct encompassing financial performance, growth, and confidence in the future. Drawing on a hypothetico- deductive approach, the research relies on a sample of 276 SME owner- managers and employs exploratory factor analysis and multiple linear regression techniques. The findings reveal a globally significant but moderate effect of personality traits on sustainability. Conscientiousness and extraversion emerge as the most structurally influential positive determinants, openness to experience plays a complementary role, while neuroticism constitutes the primary driver of organizational fragility. This study contributes to the hierarchical identification of psychological determinants of sustainability and underscores the relevance of incorporating behavioral dimensions of owner-managers into entrepreneurial support programs, particularly in institutionally uncertain contexts.