Investigating of Factors Affecting Entrepreneurial Attitude in the Innovation of Small and Medium-Sized (SMEs) Enterprises (The case of: Malayer county)

Small and medium-sized (SME) businesses are the economic backbone of societies because they provide employment, production, exports, poverty reduction, economic power, and economic development. The present study investigates the factors affecting the role of entrepreneurial attitude in the innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises in Malayer county.

This study was quantitative and it is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive survey in terms of data collection. It used SPSS software for data analysis. also, it used AMOS software for path analysis. According to Cochran's formula (1967), there were 211 small and medium-sized businesses in Malayer County out of the 470 small and medium-sized businesses that made up the statistical population.

Findings of the study showed that government support, access to infrastructure, entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial attitude, and leadership of business owners significantly affect the innovation of small and medium-sized service and manufacturing companies. Entrepreneurship education and business leadership, directly and indirectly, affect innovation in small and medium-sized service and manufacturing companies through the mediating variable of entrepreneurial attitude.

Findings of this study suggest that government assistance, infrastructure availability, corporate leadership, entrepreneurship training, and entrepreneurial mindset all had an impact on small service and industrial firms' capacity for innovation. The leadership of business owners and entrepreneurship education to innovate small firms are mediated by the entrepreneurial mentality of business owners.