The firm’s involvement in innovation became a necessary attribute for firms to remain competitive and successful. However, innovation is still considered a hallmark of large firms only. The literature on SME's involvement in innovation is scant and needs further exploration regarding the innovation process in the SME firms. This paper aims to hint the gap of knowledge related to the association between the owner-manager characteristics and innovation orientation at the SMEs. A review of relevant literature was exhausted for the achievement of the study objective. The findings of the study highlight that to fully explore the innovation process at the SME level, there is a need to divide the innovation concept into innovation creation and innovation adoption as two discrete concepts effected by the owner-manager personal characteristics. Literature hints at these two conceptualizations of the innovation among SMEs, but empirical examination is non-existence. Therefore, this work recommends future research endeavors to empirically examining the direction and strength of the relationship between owner-manager characteristics and SME's innovation performance in terms of creation and adoption. Moreover, literature and policy direction can be drawn from the respective research activities.