personal entrepreneurial competencies essay

Personal Entrepreneurial Competencies

Personal entrepreneurial competencies are a set of qualities that aid in outlining the attitudes and traits of an entrepreneur (Alusen, 2016). It (What?) assesses an individual’s personal entrepreneurial competencies as it helps in identifying one’s strengths and weaknesses, which helps in designing a plan to combat the weaknesses and developing strengths to deliver ‘the excellency as expected.

Developing knowledge competencies help entrepreneurs to interact with clients beneficially. Using the knowledge in the right manner aids in running the business effectively, minimizing risks, and exploiting opportunities to the full. Goal seeking is one of the competencies. It is vital since it enables action planning and decision-making based on what to achieve. Secondly, goal-seeking aids in setting measurable and clear specific long-range objectives and short-term goals. Is goal-seeking the second competency?. Consequently, seeking opportunities aids in seizing opportunities without being asked or forced by unexpected events.

Entrepreneurial attitude also affects entrepreneurs’ behaviors. Hence, an entrepreneurial mindset is the degree of positivity an entrepreneur has towards the idea of becoming an entrepreneur (Kume et al., 2013). Without the attitudes, it can be a challenge for any business to grow. For instance, passion drives entrepreneurs to stay in business even if they face challenges. Most entrepreneurs are problem solvers, and to derive pleasure in solving problems, one needs to make his work his passion. Furthermore, they should exhibit determination, as they have their work done or solve problems, rather than doing nothing. Therefore, determination drives an entrepreneur to work, hence making them goal-oriented. Strong work ethics are essential for an entrepreneur as they develop businesses from scratch, and hard work leads to the growth of the company. In achieving the objectives of the business, entrepreneurs need a strong work ethic and commitment.

Skills play a vital role in an entrepreneur’s life as they help in anticipating needs and bringing favorable new ideas to the market. Portraying self-confidence helps the entrepreneurs to trust their own skills and embrace their own perfection. Through communication, an entrepreneur can strike deals with stakeholders. On the other hand, the ability to learn helps entrepreneurs expand their knowledge regarding their failures as they face various challenges.

Determining Resiliency of my Competencies

Knowledge-based competencies through goal-seeking is where I will set goals and objectives that are meaningful and challenging. I need to plan every action and carefully make decisions. I have to learn my customer base and the market structure. The reality is that I will be facing challenges. Besides, to determine the resiliency of entrepreneurial attitude, I will revise my plans in light of feedback on performance. Passions, determination, and work ethics will enable me to face my work with a determined mind as the driving factors of the attitudes.

Consequently, having a base of entrepreneurial skills such as self-confidence will make me be self-solid complete my task easier since I will have self-awareness and faith to accomplish my work. Therefore, the driving force of skills is a business strategy, selling skills, and communication. Facing my clients on a daily basis requires me to develop effective communication skills, as well as face my competitors.

In conclusion, knowledge, personal attitudes, and skills influence personal entrepreneurial competencies. Knowledge competencies such as opportunity-seeking are vital for developing an action plan. On the other hand, attitude aids an entrepreneur in developing passion and determination towards his work. Concurrently, skills are critical for any entrepreneur as it is the driving force of entrepreneurship. Therefore, entrepreneurs need to develop practical communication skills to negotiate with clients and stakeholders.

Alusen, M. L. V. (2016). Personal Entrepreneurial Competencies of LPULaguna BSBA Graduating Students: Basis for Curriculum Enhancement // LPU –  Laguna Journal of Multidisciplinary Research.  Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 92–105

Kume, A., Kume, V., & Shahini, B. (2013). Entrepreneurial characteristics amongst university students in Albania.  European Scientific Journal ,  9 (16).

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Skills and Behaviors that Make Entrepreneurs Successful

What makes a successful entrepreneurial leader?

Is it the technical brilliance of Bill Gates? The obsessive focus on user experience of Steve Jobs? The vision, passion, and strong execution of Care.com’s Sheila Lirio Marcelo? Or maybe it’s about previous experience, education, or life circumstances that increase confidence in a person’s entrepreneurial abilities.

Like the conviction of Marla Malcolm Beck and husband Barry Beck that high-end beauty retail stores and spas, tightly coupled with online stores, was the business model of the future, while other entrepreneurs—and the investors who financed them—declared such brick-and-mortar businesses were dinosaurs on their way to extinction. The success of Bluemercury proved the critics wrong.

“We’ve always had a hard time being able to identify the skills and behaviors of entrepreneurial leaders”

Despite much research into explaining what makes entrepreneurial leaders tick, the answers are far from clear. In fact, most studies present conflicting findings. Entrepreneurs, it seems, are still very much a black box waiting to be opened.

A Harvard Business School research team is hoping that a new approach will enable better understanding of the entrepreneurial leader. The program combines self-assessments of their skills and behaviors by entrepreneurs themselves with evaluations of them by peers, friends, and employees.

Along the way the data is also allowing scholars to study attributes of entrepreneurs by gender, as well compare serial entrepreneurs versus first-time founders.

“We’ve always had a hard time being able to identify the skills and behaviors of entrepreneurial leaders,” says HBS Professor Lynda Applegate, who has spent 20 years studying leadership approaches and behaviors of successful entrepreneurs. “Part of the problem is that people usually focus on an entrepreneurial ‘personality’ rather than identifying the unique skills and behaviors of entrepreneurs who launch and grow their own firms.”

Complicating this understanding are the many types of entrepreneurial ventures that exist, says Applegate. These can include small “lifestyle” businesses, multi-generational family businesses, high-growth, venture funded technology businesses, and new ventures designed to commercialize breakthrough discoveries in life sciences, clean tech, and other scientific fields.

“These types of ventures seem to both appeal to and require different types of entrepreneurial leaders and we are hoping that our research will help us understand those differences—if they exist,” says Applegate, the Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration at HBS and Chair of the HBS Executive Education Portfolio for Business Owners & Entrepreneurs.

The answers are already starting to come in, thanks to initial results from a pilot test of “The Entrepreneurial Leader: Self Assessment” survey taken by 1,300 HBS alumni. Results allowed the researchers to refine the self-assessment and to create a second survey, “The Entrepreneurial Leader: Peer Assessment.” Both are being prepared for launch in summer 2016.

The team included Applegate; Janet Kraus , entrepreneur-in-residence; and Tim Butler, Senior Fellow and Senior Advisor to Career and Professional Development at HBS and Chief Scientist and co-founder of Career Leader.

Dimensions of entrepreneurial leadership

A literature review combined with interviews of successful entrepreneurs helped the team define key factors that formed the foundation for the self-assessment. These dimensions were further refined based on statistical analysis of the pilot test responses to create a new survey instrument that defines 11 factors and associated survey questions that will be used to understand the level of comfort and self-confidence that founders and non-founders have with various dimensions of entrepreneurial leadership.

These 11 dimensions are:

• Identification of Opportunities. Measures skills and behaviors associated with the ability to identify and seek out high-potential business opportunities.
• Vision and Influence. Measures skills and behaviors associated with the ability to influence all internal and external stakeholders that must work together to execute a business vision and strategy.
• Comfort with Uncertainty. Measures skills and behaviors associated with being able to move a business agenda forward in the face of uncertain and ambiguous circumstances.
• Assembling and Motivating a Business Team. Measures skills and behaviors required to select the right members of a team and motivate that team to accomplish business goals.
• Efficient Decision Making. Measures skills and behaviors associated with the ability to make effective and efficient business decisions, even in the face of insufficient information.
• Building Networks. Measures skills and behaviors associated with the ability to assemble necessary resources and to create the professional and business networks necessary for establishing and growing a business venture.
• Collaboration and Team Orientation. Measures skills and behaviors associated with being a strong team player who is able to subordinate a personal agenda to ensure the success of the business.
• Management of Operations. Measures skills and behaviors associated with the ability to successfully manage the ongoing operations of a business.
• Finance and Financial Management. Measures skills and behaviors associated with the successful management of all financial aspects of a business venture.
• Sales. Measures skills and behaviors needed to build an effective sales organization and sales channel that can successfully acquire, retain, and serve customers, while promoting strong customer relationships and engagement.
• Preference for Established Structure. Measures preference for operating in more established and structured business environments rather than a preference for building new ventures where the structure must adapt to an uncertain and rapidly changing business context and strategy.

While the 11 factors provided some level of discrimination between founders and non-founders, five factors showed statistically significant differences. For example, founders scored significantly higher than non-founders on “comfort with uncertainty,” “identification of opportunities,” “vision and influence,” “building networks,” and “finance and financial management.” Founders also had significantly lower ratings on their “preference for established structure” dimension.

Entrepreneurial leadership differences between founders and non-founders

Although some of the factors—like comfort with uncertainty and the ability to identify opportunities—seemed like obvious markers for entrepreneurial success, the study built a statistically reliable and valid tool that can be used to deepen understanding, not only of founders versus non-founders, but also of differences and similarities among founders who start and grow different types of businesses, between male and female founders, serial founders and first-time founders and founders from different countries.

In addition, a deeper examination of the individual questions that make up each factor provides richer descriptions of specific behaviors and skills that account for the differences in the profile of entrepreneurs who are launching different types of ventures and from many different backgrounds.

Take vision and influence, for example. Although it is a long-standing belief that great leaders have vision and influence, the researchers found that entrepreneurial leaders have more confidence of their abilities than the average leader on this dimension—and that leaders working within established firms actually rated themselves much lower.

Financial management and governance turned out to be another non-obvious differentiator.

“Financial management is a skill that all of our HBS alumni should feel confident in applying,” Kraus says. “Yet among the alumni surveyed in the pilot, those who had chosen to be founders rated themselves as much more confident in their financial management skills—especially those related to managing cash flow, raising capital, and board governance—than did non-founder alumni.”

Self-confidence in financial management and raising capital was especially strong for male entrepreneurs, she says. “Our future research will broaden our sample beyond HBS alumni to enable us to differentiate between those who graduated with and without an MBA, and to assess confidence in raising capital and financial management and a wide variety of other skills by different types of founders and non-founders.”

Efficient management of operations was another crucial, yet less obvious, factor. “While we often think that employees within established organizations would be more confident in their ability to efficiently manage operations, we were surprised to see that it is a distinguishing and differentiating attribute of entrepreneurs,” says Kraus. “All entrepreneurs know that they must do more with less—which means that they must work faster and with fewer resources.”

Differentiating male and female entrepreneurs

The pilot study allowed researchers to examine gender differences. While men and women rated themselves similarly on many dimensions, women were more confident in their ability to “efficiently manage operations” and in their “vision and influence,” while men expressed greater confidence in their “comfort with uncertainty” and “finance and financial management."

Entrepreneurial leadership differences between male and female founders

These differences rang true for Kraus, herself a serial entrepreneur who founded and grew three successful entrepreneurial ventures.

“Successful women entrepreneurs that I know have lots of great ideas, and are super skilled at creating a compelling vision that moves people to action,” she says. “They are also extremely capable of getting lots done with very little resources so are great at efficient management of operations. That said, these same women are often more conservative when forecasting financial goals and with raising significant rounds of capital. And, even if they have a big vision, they are less confident in declaring at the outset that their goal is to become a billion-dollar business.”

Indeed, research confirms observations that women start more companies than men, but rarely grow them as large.

Based on his earlier research, these results also resonated with Tim Butler: “When it comes to self-rating on finance skills, women are more likely than men to rate themselves lower than ratings given them by objective observers. There are definitely implications for educators when lower self-confidence in skills associated with entrepreneurial careers becomes a significant obstacle for talented would-be entrepreneurs.”

The researchers hope to deepen their understanding of male and female entrepreneurial leaders as they collect more data.

Differentiating serial founders and first-time founders

Not all founders are cut from the same cloth, the study underscores. Analysis of the pilot data also revealed important differences between first-time founders and serial founders—those who launch and grow a number of new ventures, such as Elon Musk (PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX) and research team member Kraus (Circles, Spire; peach).

One key difference the research team discovered: serial founders appear more comfortable with managing uncertainty and risk. That doesn’t mean they enjoy taking risks, Kraus says, “but they appear to be confident that they are adept and capable of knowing how to ‘de-risk’ their venture and manage uncertainty from the very beginning."

Entrepreneurial leadership differences between serial founders and non-serial founders

While the data are not yet robust enough to say so with certainty, Kraus believes that serial entrepreneurs often enjoy launching businesses where the risk is highest because of confidence in their ability to manage uncertainty, and perhaps because they enjoy the process of creating clarity from uncertainty.

Other factors that set serial entrepreneurs apart from one-timers include confidence in their skills at building networks, securing financing and financial management, and generating creative ways to identify and meet market opportunities.

FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES

As more people take the assessment and HBS develops a richer data set, scholars, educators, entrepreneurs and those who support them will be able to develop insights that will have a number of payoffs.

“The entrepreneurial leaders we know are constantly searching for tools that can help them become more self-aware so they can be more effective,” Kraus explains. “This tool is going to be uniquely useful in that it was specifically developed to help entrepreneurs gain a deeper understanding of the skills and behaviors that they need to be successful.”

In addition, researchers will be able to examine the data by age, gender, country, industry, size of company, pace of growth, and type of venture “to understand the full range of entrepreneurial leadership skills and behaviors, and how different types of entrepreneurs are similar and different,” Applegate says. “These insights will enable us to do a better job of educating entrepreneurs, designing apprenticeships and providing the mentorship needed.”

The data will also be useful in identifying skills and behaviors needed to jumpstart entrepreneurial leadership in established firms, and in understanding how an entrepreneurial leader continues to lead innovation throughout the lifecycle of a business—from startup through scale-up.

“Today, I often see that the creativity and innovation that was so prevalent in the early days of an entrepreneurial venture gets squeezed out as the company grows and starts to scale,” says Applegate. “But, rather than replace entrepreneurs with professional managers, we need to ensure that we have entrepreneurial leadership and creativity in all organizations and at levels in organizations. We hope that our research will help clarify the behavior and skills needed and, over time, will help us track the entrepreneurial leadership behaviors and skills of companies of all size, in all industries, and around the world.”

Given the critical importance of entrepreneurial leaders in driving the economy and improving society, shockingly little is understood about them. The data and analysis emerging from HBS will provide important insights that can help answer the questions, “What makes a successful entrepreneurial leader and how can I become a successful entrepreneurial leader?”

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Entrepreneurial Personality Essay: Traits & Characteristics

What personal traits are considered important to the entrepreneur? Find the answer here! This entrepreneurial personality essay focuses on the importance of characteristics necessary for a successful business career.

Introduction

• Personal Traits

Reference List

An entrepreneur is an individual who sets up and administers a business for the main purpose of making profit. In the present world, entrepreneurship is paramount in fueling the growth of the economy and providing employment opportunities.

Anyone can become an entrepreneur but not everyone is suited for successful entrepreneurship. Most successful entrepreneurs share certain personality traits that give them a comparative advantage over their competition. This essay explores the personality traits required to be a successful entrepreneur.

Personal Traits Important to the Entrepreneur

Determination is one of the personality traits that an entrepreneur should possess in order to increase their chances of being successful. Determination is a very intense longing to achieve success. The trait requires a lot of persistence and the ability to recover in case of a period of downturn.

It is not easy to attain success within a short time. Therefore, an entrepreneur should exercise a lot of patience and should not easily give up when things go wrong .

Dedication is another important personality trait of a successful entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs should dedicate themselves towards the accomplishment of their objectives and visions. Having focus and being dedicated enables an entrepreneur to be more successful in his or her business ventures.

Starting a business requires hard work and a lot of effort. Regardless of numerous difficulties, an entrepreneur should be dedicated to all tasks by working towards a positive outcome and to be willing to ask for assistance once in a while.

Self confidence, being another personality trait enables an entrepreneur to be assertive in achieving their own interests in a way that is socially recognized. Self confidence usually results from thorough planning which decreases uncertainty rates and risk levels.

Self confidence should be sufficient enough in order to successfully achieve planned profits. When an entrepreneur is skilled and knowledgeable, self confidence comes naturally. The confidence also gives them the ability to listen to the opinions of other people without feeling intimidated .

Creativity and innovation are very important traits that an entrepreneur should possess. Being innovative enables an entrepreneur to develop fresh and improved products to be able to survive in the competitive world of business.

This trait also encourages the entrepreneur to constantly learn, question and think outside the box in order to be in line with the ever changing technology. With fresh and improved products and services, an entrepreneur is more likely to be successful in the world of business.

Interpersonal reactivity is essential in entrepreneurial life because it enables an entrepreneur to put himself or herself in the position of another person.

The entrepreneur who possesses this trait has the ability to approach other business people and develop a relationship that is intended to be beneficial.

Research says that sufficient levels of interpersonal reactivity enables an entrepreneur to produce products that are client oriented hence success in the business is more likely .

All business ventures have their fair share of upturns and downturns. Success does not come immediately to an entrepreneur instead it takes a lot of time. Every entrepreneur possesses the above personality traits but in different degrees. Every skill and trait can be achieved through practice and learning.

Therefore, any entrepreneur can achieve the above traits after some time. The entrepreneur can also hire a person who has the admirable strengths to take care of his or her business to better and greater heights.

Action Coach . (n.d). 12 Essential Characteristics of an Entrepreneur . Web.

Caliendo, M., & Kritikos, A. (2007). Is Entrepreneurial Success Predictable? An Ex-Ante Analysis of the Character-Based Approach . Web.

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Entrepreneurship Competency – What is It and Why Is It Important?

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Introduction

Competencies are key skills needed by employees to do their jobs well. A competent employee is more productive and adds better value to the workplace. Therefore, competency evaluation is becoming one of the most popular ways to analyze skill gaps in the current workforce and devise methods of filling the gap. There are a lot of competencies required by modern employees; one very vital category is entrepreneurship competency.

Entrepreneurship is not a new term. It refers to the process of setting up and successfully managing a business idea, creating monetary value, and helping the business grow. Ideally, the person(s) who owns any organization is an entrepreneur, and people working for the entrepreneur are employees.

If this idea is right, why are organizations looking for employees with entrepreneurial competencies ? Why are such employees with an entrepreneurial zeal preferred over others? Keep reading to know more. While thinking about entrepreneurial competencies, read our blog on the basics of competency assessments and their importance to get better insights into competency assessments.

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What is entrepreneurial competency?

Entrepreneurial competency is a set of skills and behaviour needed to create, develop, manage, and grow a business venture. It also includes the ability to handle the risks that come with running a business. Without a doubt, business owners and startup founders must possess most of the entrepreneur competencies to succeed.

Just like other types of competencies, there are different sub-categories here. The competencies could be technical, behavioural, attitude-based, or productivity-based.

Those with an entrepreneurial zeal need to play three prominent roles.

• Market maker

So the competencies for entrepreneurship are designed to help people perform in these roles effectively.

Why should organizations look for employees with entrepreneurial competencies?

While it makes sense for business owners to work on their core competencies in entrepreneurship, why is this even discussed for employees? Here is why.

According to a survey by Forbes, entrepreneurs are some of the most engaged and healthiest individuals in the world. The survey states that this could be because they are passionate about what they do and always looking for opportunities.

An entrepreneurial mindset also means pushing themselves to be innovative and creative and holding on to even the tiniest opportunity to grow. Don’t all these characteristics sound valuable? Organizations feel that when their employees have an entrepreneurial mindset, they add more value to the workplace and get a sense of ownership of the company and not just treat it like a place to earn a salary from.

Entrepreneurship competency will mean employees are self-driven, responsible, innovative, and motivated about what they do. Here are the basic differences between any other employee and one with entrepreneurial competencies.

Core competencies in entrepreneurship

While there are a lot of core competencies in entrepreneurship , here are some basic ones you can look for in your employees the next time there is a competency evaluation process happening.

• Risk-taking abilities
• Out-of-the-box thinking and creativity
• Problem-solving abilities
• Taking initiative
• Persistence
• Persuasion and social skills
• Business management skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Networking skills
• Effective communication skills

Want some help recognizing employee behaviour at the workplace? This blog will help you then.

How to encourage entrepreneurial competency skills in employees?

Developing entrepreneurial competencies offers two benefits – it helps employees move from individual roles to management roles and allows the organization to flourish and take more giant strides ahead. So, here are the innovative ways in which an organization can encourage entrepreneurial competencies in its employees.

Allow knowledge sharing

This is one of the most important ways you can groom entrepreneurs within the organization. Make sure knowledge is available freely for those who pursue it. Diversity of knowledge is what makes a person holistically developed. Employees should have a basic idea of how most other teams and the organization’s business function. Learning programs need to be offered regularly, without hesitation.

Initiate programs that foster creativity and fresh ideas  

There are organizations that host town halls just to get fresh ideas and thoughts from employees. Employees are asked to speak their minds here, and new ideas are jotted down. This makes employees feel like they matter. It also helps the organization to identify those with entrepreneurial skills easily and get smart ideas that may work.

Allow ownership  

Having someone to monitor employees is a good idea. However, micromanagement can turn out to be negative for the employee’s spirits. Make sure you create the sense of ownership in employees, letting them take smaller decisions themselves and deal with clients with minimal monitoring. Hire managers who believe in this process to ensure employees get the freedom that allows them to foster entrepreneurial competencies.

Create an atmosphere of security and protection 

Many employees don’t take risks or don’t go the extra mile because they fear things going wrong. What would happen to their jobs if their decisions didn’t work? Will they be blamed if their choices go wrong?

All entrepreneurs make choices and decisions and own them, whether they worked or not. However, employees have the added pressure of being accountable to the management. So, they would hesitate to do this unless they know that the management trusts them and would not shift blame if a decision didn’t work.

If you want employees to develop entrepreneurial competencies, then let them know that making mistakes is alright and that the organization will back them up and help rectify damages. Creating that kind of a psychologically secure atmosphere is very important.

You can do two things to foster entrepreneurial competencies in the workforce – hire individuals who show entrepreneurial zeal or have had past experiences handling businesses or invest in training and learning programs to promote the same in your existing employees.

Make sure there are a couple of employees with a high entrepreneurial spirit in every team to help others grow and be productive. These employees will constantly think about ways to uplift their team and their processes and, as a result, help the organization grow too. Employees with an entrepreneurial spirit are assets to the organization, and their skills need to be valued, appreciated, rewarded, and nurtured.

You can design your own competency framework and include entrepreneur competencies in them to start monitoring the skills. Get in touch with PossibleWorks to know how to do this.

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The 12 best entrepreneurial skills

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The importance of entrepreneurial skills

12 essential entrepreneurial skills

More entrepreneurial hard skills to brush up on

How to improve your entrepreneurial skills, lead a successful business (and life).

Successful entrepreneurs are often jacks of all trades — and never experts at none. 

Running your own business means you have to pull from a deep toolbox of hard and soft skills to push your business off the ground and keep it growing. But because entrepreneurs are constantly on call and keep never-ending to-do lists, it can be difficult to prioritize learning the entrepreneurship skills that will help you and your business stay healthy. 

Whether you’re getting ready to transform your side hustle into a new business or want to audit your current skill set to improve your ability to lead , working on your transferable skills is a great way to bolster a growth mindset . And though you can’t master everything, building well-rounded know-how will empower you and your teams to support the business. 

As an entrepreneur , your responsibilities may feel never-ending and all-encompassing. After all, turning your dreams into a successful business doesn’t happen overnight — and once your business begins to gain traction, the work required to keep the lights on never ceases.

Business leaders with an entrepreneurial spirit must accept this challenge and continuously make calculated and informed decisions to keep their business plans moving forward.

It’s up to you to identify opportunities, make smart decisions , and chart the course when challenges arise. And as your startup grows, you must learn to effectively allocate your resources and create value propositions for your employees and clients. 

But don’t worry — this hard work pays off. According to the U.S. Business Administration Office of Advocacy, small businesses employ 46.4% of private sector U.S. employees , meaning business owners stimulate local economies and create important lifelines for local communities. Here are a few other ways your entrepreneurial skills leave a positive impact:

• Entrepreneurs can drive social change and create products and services that improve lives
• Disruptive innovation stimulates economic growth and opens new markets for other entrepreneurs
• Great entrepreneurs grow together with their employees, providing valuable personal and professional development opportunities
• Working on your skills builds adaptability and dynamism , allowing you to work efficiently alone and as part of a team
• Building your entrepreneurial ability helps you set realistic goals and hit objectives, which can fill you with purpose and boost your satisfaction with life

While you don’t have to excel at everything, developing a breadth of know-how helps you delegate tasks realistically and empathize with your employees

12 essential entrepreneurial skills 

Getting a business off the ground and moving is no small task. In a world of ever-changing market trends and economic challenges, you have to think on your feet without losing sight of your company mission . Be ing able to switch from one competency to another is crucial to maintaining a solid business foundation. 

The following skills aren’t exclusive to entrepreneurs — they’re indispensable to any industry and job role. If you’re getting ready to make the transition to entrepreneurship, you may be surprised by how many transferable skills you already have under your belt.

Of course, others may need a little cultivation or refining. But fine-tuning them will ensure you’re qualified to roll with the punches and keep your business moving forward. 

Here are 12 key skills every entrepreneur should strive for:

Budgeting: All business ideas are limited by budgets. Successful entrepreneurship requires a firm grip on your business’s financial reality, which means learning to manage budgets , analyze financial data, and understand cash flow patterns. 

This knowled ge is invaluable to your business’ security, as it facilitates sound decision-making and allows you to build realistic action plans for investments, expansions, and cuts.

Problem-solving : Entrepreneurship has no finish line, no matter the industry. Your business journey will be chock-full of new challenges and obstacles requiring problem-solving and critical-thinking skills . Strategic thinking is what allows you to step back from today’s problems and see the bigger picture, aligning short-term goals with long-term objectives . 

Communication skills: Business owners are the voice of their companies. Whether you’r e emailing a client , delivering an elevator pitch to a potential investor , or delegating tasks on Slack, practicing adaptability in tone and delivery is essential to effective communication , no matter the scenario. 

Time management: With so many responsibilities and decisions to make each day, you might feel like several tasks are competing for your time and attention. Learning to manage your time and leave r oom for flexibility provides you with the necessary structure to move through your day without wasted resources or missed deadlines. 

Creative thinking: The business landscape i s ever-changing, and adaptability is essential to staying competitive. An entrepreneurial mindset means inserting creative thinking into every aspect of your business strategy, from differentiating your products from the competition to creating incentives that retain the best talent . 

Practice keeping an open mind by challenging traditional ideas, embracing new perspectives, and encouraging experimentation. It’ll keep your teams inspired and your business forward-thinking. 

Leadership skills: As the head of the company, your team looks to you to set the tone. Whether you demonstrate a strong work ethic or cut corners, your behavior tells your employees what is and isn’t acceptable behavior.

Leadership is a 24/7 responsibility, but fostering a positive and productive work environment will pay off in strong collaboration and continuous improvement from your teams. 

Management skills: While you may be tempted to juggle a dozen roles, you (and your mental health ) can’t do it all. When small-scale day-to-day tasks constantly occupy your time, b ecoming a future-minded leader is difficult.

As your business grows, building structures that allow your employees to thrive and take on more responsibilities is vital. That way, you can delegate to your growing team and dedicate more time to overseeing long-term planning.

Decision-making: As the head of the business, your days are fraught with important decisions. Successful entrepreneurs mix analytical thinking and intuition, as they may face situations with limited information or uncertain results. Learning to weigh pros and cons, consider risks, and surround yourself with diverse perspectives empowers you to navigate complexities confidently. 

Networking: Hard work is just one part of the equation to keep your business healthy. The relationships you cultivate are the other. After all, your familiarity with industry peers, potential partners, and clients keeps your business on people’s minds.

Regular networking helps you gain insights into your target market, stay up-to-date on emerging trends, and open doors to new opportunities.

Collaboration: You depend on your teams to keep business moving forward, so you need to arm yourself with tools to give them support and guidance. Demonstrating gratitude , open-mindedness, and reliability are interpersonal skills that build the trust that keeps your workforce productive. 

Active listening:  Team members want to feel heard a nd respected. After all, we all dedicate a lot of time and energy to our jobs. Workers who feel understood are more productive , so aim to practice emotional intelligence and value your team’s work-life balance . You’ll see hap pier and more effective teams. 

Public speaking: Management is the face of the company. Throughout your career, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to speak in front of a crowd. Whether delivering a TED Talk or l eading a team meeting, you can motivate and inspire people to rally around your vision. 

Hard skills are explicit knowledge that helps you perform specific tasks. Most people learn technical skills through formal education and refine them through supplemental training and on-the-job experiences. 

Here are 15 of the most important skills that’ll come in handy while building your business: 

• Social media 
• Accounting and bookkeeping
• Inbox management
• Basic financial knowledge
• Sales and negotiation
• Digital marketing
• Market research and analysis
• Project management
• Customer service and management
• Data analysis
• Legal and regulatory compliance
• Supply chain management
• Basic computer skills
• Presentation development

Entrepreneurship is a commitment that requires continuous learning and skill refinement. When you’re ready, choose from the entrepreneurship examples above and get to work on your skills. 

Here are a few tips to help you constantly improve your ability to lead a business: 

Take online courses: There’s a class for every aspect of business management. Quick courses in social media advertising, financial forecasting, and supply chain optimization can help you develop your skill set. 

Even if you don’t directly oversee a specific task, developing a working knowledge can improve your collaboration with other departments and your ability to make informed decisions with your team.

• Seek out mentors: You’re not alone in the business world. Plenty of entrepreneurs have already navigated decisions that are brand new to you. Mentors can provide you with a sense of connection and bolster your confidence. Tapping into an experienced professional network can give you the clarity to help you move forward, no matter your business situation. 
• Create a practice plan: You don’t have to learn everything at once. Identify the most pertinent skills to your success, and create a plan to refine them. This could mean being more conscientious of writing clear communications, regularly showing gratitude, or attending a seminar every month. Regardless of your goals, practice and consistency make perfect. 
• Join a local business organization: Running a business is difficult, but having the support of colleagues navigating similar professional spheres can help you maintain your sense of purpose. Local business associations are also great places to network, stay up-to-date on trends, and find new opportunities. 
• Work with a coach: Entrepreneurs provide constant guidance to their teams, and they benefit from the same support. Coaches are incredible allies to entrepreneurs, and they can assist you in setting clear goals and staying on track to reach your wellness and professional objectives. 

If you have the characteristics of an entrepreneur , you already possess valuable soft skills, including passion, drive, and self-confidence. Now it’s time to level up your entrepreneurial skills and equip yourself with the tools to transform your dreams into reality.

Practicing time management, learning to lead a team, and developing know-how about various business management topics can all help push your business forward. And as your company grows and earns successes, so will you.

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Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

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Must-Have Entrepreneurial Skills for Aspiring Business Owners

• 25 Aug 2020

What comes to mind when you hear the word “entrepreneur”?

Maybe you picture a talented college dropout, or a seasoned business professional with a knack for predicting the next big thing. Whatever the persona, replace it with yourself.

There’s no specific demographic or personality profile of a successful entrepreneur . No matter your age, race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or upbringing, you can be an entrepreneur if you have the dedication, drive, and business skills.

Access your free e-book today.

Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?

Whether entrepreneurship is a mix of innate traits or learned abilities is a constant debate. While risk tolerance, resilience , innovation , and creative problem-solving can provide a head start, they aren’t the only qualities to becoming an effective business owner.

Unlike personality traits and demographic details, you can learn and practice entrepreneurship through education, training, and experience. By taking advantage of growth opportunities, you can build valuable skills and generate innovative ideas to achieve business success.

If entrepreneurship is a path you’d like to pursue, use this list to take stock of your strengths and weaknesses and determine which skills to develop before launching your venture .

Check out the video below to learn more about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

6 Skills All Entrepreneurs Need

1. finance skills.

Finance skills, such as budgeting and financial statement analysis , are necessary for running a business.

Creating a reasonable budget and sticking to it can be the difference between your venture’s success and failure. By learning this essential finance skill, you can avoid overspending and appropriately allocate company resources.

It’s also imperative to know how to read and prepare financial statements , including a balance sheet , income statement , and cash flow statement . Aside from being required for reporting and tax purposes, these documents help you track performance, make future projections, and manage expenses. They can also be useful to investors and banks that are considering funding your startup because they show your business’s financial progress.

2. Networking

Your network is one of your greatest assets. Networking can enable you to not only meet like-minded professionals but build your future team and keep a finger on your industry’s pulse.

Your professional network can comprise:

• Former and current co-workers
• Alumni from educational institutions
• Professors and teachers
• Industry leaders and speakers
• Past and present clients
• Friends and family members
• Business professionals in your geographic area
• Fellow entrepreneurs with similar interests, responsibilities, and goals

Identify and reach out to people in your network who can guide you in your entrepreneurial journey and inform your decision-making . Ask them about their businesses, how long they’ve been in their industries, and lessons they’ve learned from successes and failures. Perhaps they’ve started several companies and can offer valuable advice about raising funds, developing products, and building a client base. They may even be able to connect you to contacts whose work aligns with yours.

In addition to leveraging your network, expand it. One way to do so is by signing up for networking events in your area or industry, such as HBS Online’s annual Connext conference, where learners from around the world come together to network, engage, and learn from HBS leadership and faculty.

LinkedIn is another valuable way to connect with others. Using the platform’s feed and recommendation algorithm, you can find professionals with whom you have shared connections and similar interests and job titles. Don’t be afraid to send a note introducing yourself to a new contact.

Related: How Leaders Develop and Use Their Network

3. Speaking Confidently

The importance of speaking confidently as an aspiring entrepreneur can’t be overstated. Whether pitching to investors , communicating with clients, or making conversation at an event, the way you talk about your business and its potential can influence how others see it, too. Showing a lack of confidence can deter investors from funding your venture and lead customers to question their decisions to buy from you.

Remember: You are your business’s biggest advocate. If you’ve achieved a milestone like product-market fit , share that with others.

People may doubt you along the way, but you should never be one of them. Confidence can make all the difference when it comes to attracting and retaining customers and investors.

4. Accepting and Acting on Feedback

To succeed as an entrepreneur, you must be eager to receive feedback and act on it. This requires staying humble and accepting that your idea of your product’s perfect version may not resonate with your target customers.

“Pinpointing your target customer is a critical early step in the startup business model development process,” Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Jeffery Bussgang says in the online course Launching Tech Ventures .

One way to gather feedback is by conducting customer validation interviews to solicit constructive criticism regarding your product, proposed business model , and assumptions you’ve made about users.

You may also garner feedback from investors, more experienced entrepreneurs, and friends and family—and some of it may be unsolicited. You’re not required to implement all their advice, but it’s beneficial to consider it. Would their suggestions increase your product’s quality, value, or user experience? If the answer is “yes,” make those improvements.

Related: 5 Key Pieces of Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

5. Recognizing Patterns

Pattern recognition—in data, market trends, and user behavior—is an often-overlooked entrepreneurial skill.

For instance, identifying patterns in cash flow statements can enable you to make predictions about future cash flows. When observing market sales data, you can identify seasonality or other time-related trends that inform long-term goals.

Recognizing patterns can also help you to excel in your industry. If entering the tech space, you must understand the common challenges and patterns of what Bussgang calls “tough tech ventures” in Launching Tech Ventures . For example, health care settings involve many ethical issues around patient-facing products due to data privacy and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.

When observing how users interact with your product, pay attention to how they react to specific elements and what questions arise. If your product is an app, perhaps you identify a pattern among teenage users who download it and immediately open the chat function. You can use trends to learn more about customers’ motivations and improve your product to better fit their needs.

Related: 7 Questions to Ask for an Insightful User Interview

6. Maintaining a Growth Mindset

As an aspiring entrepreneur, it’s critical to have a growth mindset . A growth mindset involves perceiving intelligence, abilities, and talents as learnable and capable of improvement, as opposed to a fixed mindset, which entails believing those same traits to be inherently stable and unchangeable.

One professional who demonstrates the growth mindset is Maggie Robb , vice president of operations at Spire Health. Robb knew she had a lot to learn when making the transition from a large corporation to a Silicon Valley startup and decided to take the online course Entrepreneurship Essentials to strengthen her entrepreneurial skills.

“While I have a deep business background, I wasn’t well versed in several important aspects of entrepreneurship, like investment structure, fundraising, and valuation,” Robb says.

In addition to bolstering her knowledge of those topics, Robb says the course helped her recognize the value of testing and iteration in the entrepreneurial process.

“While not something I was completely unfamiliar with, I realized the importance of it within a startup,” Robb says. “It made me look at our resource allocation in a different way, compared to traditional companies with established products.”

Robb’s story imparts a vital lesson: Your skills aren’t fixed but rather result from effort, practice, and persistence. By maintaining a growth mindset, you can avoid taking your skills for granted and capitalize on opportunities to grow and improve throughout your career.

Developing Your Entrepreneurial Skills

Entrepreneurship is a journey that requires dedication, drive, and hard work. One thing it doesn’t require is fitting a specific demographic.

With financial literacy , networking skills, confidence, the ability to accept feedback and recognize patterns, and a growth mindset, anyone can pursue entrepreneurship.

As long as you’re willing to strengthen your entrepreneurial skills, you can successfully position yourself to start your own company.

Are you interested in bolstering your entrepreneurship skills? Explore Entrepreneurship Essentials and Launching Tech Ventures , two of our online entrepreneurship and innovation courses. If you aren't sure which is the right fit, download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals.

This post was updated on July 28, 2023. It was originally published on August 25, 2020.

About the Author

HOW TO: Identify your Personal Entrepreneurial Competencies

Personal entrepreneurial competencies (pecs).

August 3, 2018. For would-be entrepreneurs and those with existing micro or small businesses, UP ISSI’s Tara Na, Negosyo Na! An anniversary training offering is a pathway to develop their entrepreneurial competencies. Moreover, the course digs in through their business interest and passion as a market-maker. Part of the seminar is the administration of a self-rating assessment to evaluate an individual’s Personal Entrepreneurial Competencies (PECs) . The PECs questionnaire provides a self-assessment tool on how each one sizes up to the common competencies identified by Management Systems International (MSI). Understanding your PECs will be of great help in the detection and analysis of your strong and weak points. Thus, these behavioural indicators are said to be useful in strengthening  entrepreneurial potential.

The 10 Entrepreneurial Characteristics

•  Opportunity seeking
•  Persistence
•  Commitment to work
•  Demand for quality and efficiency
•  Risk taking
•  Goal setting
•  Information seeking
•  Systematic planning and monitoring
•  Persuasion and networking
•  Self-confidence

​If you missed Tara Na, Negosyo Na! training offered by the UP ISSI but would like to know your PECs score, here’s a brief rundown on how to compute your PECs Profile. The Self-Rating Questionnaire has 55 items. These are rated in accordance with your attitude and personal beliefs.

Page 1 of PEC Self Rating Questionnaire

Answer the questionnaire based on your personal and honest views as there are no wrong answers. Remember that no one is good at everything.

PECs Self-Rating Questionnaire Download PECs Self-Rating Questionnaire

PEC Scoring Sheet When you’re done with the questions, transfer your rating to the PECs Scoring Sheet as arranged in downward direction in parentheses. Perform the addition and subtraction per row to calculate your PEC score. Download PECs Self-Rating Questionnaire Scoring Sheet

Correction Factor The correction factor (the total of items 11, 22, 33, 44, and 55) is computed to determine whether or not a person tries to filter his image of himself. If the total score on this factor is 20 or greater, then the total score on the ten PECs must be corrected to provide a more accurate assessment of the strengths of the PEC score for that individual. Download PECs Self-Rating Questionnaire Corrected Factor Sheet

Correction Factor Sheet Subtract the Correction Number from the Original Score. Place your score to Corrected Total space.

PECs Profile Sheet Download PECs Self-Rating Questionnaire Profile Sheet Plot your corrected score with its corresponding PEC on each line and connect the dots to get your profile. The more dots marked on the right side means you are more capable with the respective entrepreneurial characteristic.

Interpreting Scores* The highest corrected score is 25 per PECs item. The closer you are to 25 means you are strong in that particular PECs item.

The average and median score is 12.5.

A score below 12.5 means a challenge or opportunity for improvement in that particular PECs item. A below the average score calls for change of behavioural pattern.

Marking on the extreme left side (below 12) requires self-reflection and figuring out changes needed to improve one’s personality. The PECs profile is dynamic, meaning it is not set in stone and whatever challenges you may have could still be improved on. Your PECs profile will be technically progressive once these challenges are faced with self-confidence and are aligned to your business plan. In a larger sense, a winning personality is considered a key factor whether you are fit to start or maintain a business.

Tara Na, Negosyo Na! seminar is a yearly offering by the UP ISSI’s Training and Entrepreneurship Education Division (TEED). The programme covers the not-so-frequently asked questions by entrepreneurs that are new in the industry, by business owners who need a refresher course to build and re-construct their business structure and, most of all, the Tara Na, Negosyo Na! serves as a platform for average Filipinos to encourage them to start their own business even with little capital, even if it’s just in their backyard as long as the business ideas are backed up with systematic planning and management.

*Interpreting Score from Prof. Rolando Ramon C. Diaz. Head of Training and Entrepreneurship Education Division (TEED), UP ISSI.

References: McClelland and McBer. (1985). Entrepreneurial Competencies. Management Systems International (MSI)

Published by Information and Public Affairs Office (IPAO), UP ISSI. 2018.

How to cite this web page:

Villena, D., 2018. HOW TO: Identify your Personal Entrepreneurial Competencies | Institute for Small-Scale Industries. [online] UP ISSI. Available at: <https://beta.entrepreneurship.org.ph/2018/08/09/how-to-identify-your-personal-entrepreneurial-competencies/> [Accessed (input date)].

NOTE: For PECs questionnaire alone you may cite Management Systems International (MSI). For this work/article published on our website as your reference material, you may request by sending a “Letter Requesting Permission” to [email protected]

UPDATE as of February 2021

Asia Pacific College is commissioned by UNESCO Jakarta to develop the Alternative Learning (ALS) Learner’s Books and Teacher’s Guidebooks for Junior High School under UNESCO’s framework, “Better Life for Out-of-school Girls to Fight Against Poverty and Injustice in the Philippines.” These materials will be turned over by UNESCO Jakarta to the Department of Education to be used by their teachers and learners for free.

DepEd ALS learner’s book “Learning Strand 4 – Life and Career Skills” Module 2: Starting a Business. DepEd book is ALS Accreditation and Equivalency Program for Junior High School.

Access the learner’s module :  UNESCO_ALS_LS4_M02-deped_als

7 thoughts on “ HOW TO: Identify your Personal Entrepreneurial Competencies ”

In the context of the assessment tool, what is the significance of the correction factor, and how does it impact the interpretation of an individual’s self-image? Could you provide more information on the rationale behind applying the correction factor and its implications for the overall assessment results?

Thank you so much. Your assessment to dig out and determine the level of characteristics an entrepreneur should have is so helpful.

Thank you for this.. it helps me widen my knowledge

HELLO PO THISIS JOHN STEPHEN DINGCONG, thank you for this site because you actually help people to make and find a solution for their problem…. I also have a problem like them…please help me to find a questionnaire of “MODERATING INFLUENCE OF SOCIOEMOTIONAL NEEDS” for my thesis… thank you so much

Glad to be of help. As of the time being, the questionnaire you mentioned is not covered by the ISSI curricula. We suggest you try to broaden your research by getting in touch with other organizations related to it.

Greetings, I want to use this questionnaire / scale for my research work. Please let me know the actual citation to refer this questionnaire in my work.

Hi Syed, For PECs questionnaire alone you may cite Management Systems International (MSI). For this work/article published on our website as your reference material, you may request by sending a “Letter Requesting Permission” to [email protected]

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Entrepreneurial competences revised: developing a consolidated and categorized list of entrepreneurial competences

• Original Paper
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• Published: 03 February 2020
• Volume 3 , pages 1–35, ( 2020 )

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• Alexander Tittel   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2021-8827 1 &
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The goal of entrepreneurship education is to prepare students for entrepreneurial practice and to develop profound entrepreneurial competences. Due to the heterogeneity in definitions and competence frameworks in the field of entrepreneurship education, literature and practice still illustrate much confusion about what should be taught in academic entrepreneurship courses and which competences need to be developed. An in-depth review of entrepreneurial competences dates back to the year 2008 by Mitchtelmore and Rowley. The purpose of this paper is to review newer contributions and propose a synthesis of state-of-the-art by developing an updated entrepreneurial competence framework. Both, a consolidated categorization approach and a list of entrepreneurial competences are developed and suggested for educators for the development of academic courses and practice-oriented training programs.

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Introduction

The first entrepreneurship course at Harvard Business School was proposed by Myles Mace in 1947. Since then entrepreneurship has become an important academic and teaching field (Gartner and Vesper 1994 ; Katz 2003 ; Kuratko 2005 ). The fast-growing number of entrepreneurship courses worldwide led to a high variety of educational goals, teaching methods and evaluation approaches (Purzer et al. 2016 ; Samwel Mwasalwiba 2010 )

Moreover, a harmonized definition of the term “Entrepreneurship Education” does not exist in the scientific community. In addition, enterprise education, entrepreneurship education, and entrepreneurial education are often used interchangeably (Samwel Mwasalwiba 2010 ). For this reason, Erkkilä ( 2000 ) has proposed a unifying term “entrepreneurial education” as encompassing both enterprise and entrepreneurship education.

Entrepreneurial education is “the process of providing individuals with the ability to recognize commercial opportunities and the insight, self-esteem, knowledge and skills to act on them” (Jones and English 2004 , p. 416). Other authors still uphold the term “Entrepreneurship Education” and propose its goal as to prepare students for entrepreneurial practice and develop their knowledge, skills and attitudes (Garavan et al. 1994 ; Samwel Mwasalwiba 2010 ). It is interesting to note that according to the Recommendation of the European Parliament and the Council of 18 December 2006, knowledge, skills and attitudes are considered the key components of a competence (EU 2006 , p. 13). In other words, entrepreneurship education aims to prepare students for entrepreneurial practice and develop entrepreneurial competences (Lackeus 2015 ).

As a result, due to the heterogeneity in definitions and approaches, literature and practice illustrate a certain confusion about what should be taught in academic entrepreneurship courses and which competences need to be developed.

The better educators are able to identify and determine qualification goals and learning objectives for entrepreneurship education, the better we can conceive and execute adequate pedagogical trainings. A key construct in pedagogy that can help educators to clarify and capture the learning objectives is the concept of competence. There are varying definitions and uses of the word “competence” in the context of pedagogy, entrepreneurship education and education policy. Therefore, a conceptual clarification is desirable. Also, it is essential to review which specific competences are considered to be important in entrepreneurship education in order to create a sound basis for the design and implementation of high-quality courses and programs. Clarity about entrepreneurial competences will support educators to choose content, define learning outcomes, develop instructional design and appropriate methods for monitoring and evaluation.

In fact, the discussion about entrepreneurial competences is not new. An in-depth review dates back to the year 2008 by Mitchtelmore & Rowley. The topic still attained attention after 2010, and quite a number of newer contributions have been published. This paper reviews these newer contributions and proposes a synthesis of state-of-the-art.

This article formulates four contributions: (1) It lists all definitions of “competence” and “entrepreneurial competence” found in the literature and shows overlaps and inconsistencies. (2) It suggests a consolidated definition of “entrepreneurial competence,” consistent with prominent definitions in pedagogy, entrepreneurship literature and policy. (3) It creates a merged and consolidated list of all entrepreneurial competences found in the entrepreneurship literature. (4) It creates a category system for the list.

Methodology

The study is a systematic literature review (SLR) and is based on the guidelines suggested by Kitchenham ( 2007 ). A SLR aims to systematically find primarily studies that are relevant for the research question by applying a transparent and unbiased search strategy (ibid).

The aim of the review is twofold. First, it aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of state-of-the-art in the entrepreneurship competence domain, and second, to identify, consolidate and structure the entrepreneurship-specific competences that are discussed in the literature.

Research questions

The research questions (RQ) and the corresponding sub-questions (SQ) addressed in the review are:

RQ 1: Which definitions for “competence” can be found in the literature?

RQ 2: Which definitions for “entrepreneurial competence” (EC) can be found in the literature?

RQ 3: Which entrepreneurial competences are considered to be important in the literature?

As a large number of entrepreneurial competences are expected to be compiled from the literature, a potential categorization framework could help to structure and organize the competences in different categories. For that reason, the sub-question to RQ 1 is: What types of competences can be found in the literature (SQ 1.1)? With respect to RQ 2, three sub-questions are formulated: SQ 2.1: Who are the most cited authors concerning ECs in the last ten years? SQ 2.2: What are the most common definitions of an EC used by the authors? SQ 2.3. What types of EC can be found in the literature?

Research process

Identification of literature.

For the identification of relevant research, we applied an iterative search strategy to find relevant literature and databases, test various combinations of key terms and assess the potentially relevant publications. The identification of literature with a focus on the different research questions required a divergent and convergent exploration approach. For that reason, with respect to different thematic foci of research, we adjusted the search strategy in the time frame and the scope of the search. Starting with the identification of definitions and the categorizations of competence, the time frame and the domain were not restricted (divergent search on competence from pedagogical and education policy perspective).

As mentioned above, a valid review of entrepreneurial competences appeared by Mitchelmore and Rowley in 2010, who had looked at publications until 2008. For that reason, we limited the search of EC literature to the last decade from 2008 to 2018. However, during the research process and the content analysis, we identified publications from authors outside the time frame and included them to address the specific research and sub-questions.

As a result, the search process was conducted manually by searching the search engines in the scientific and policy databases on entrepreneurship, pedagogy and social sciences. The databases are given in Table 1 .

For the identification of appropriate search terms, a thesaurus was used to include generic, subsumable and related terms of the key terms “competence” and “entrepreneurship.” Table  2 illustrates the search terms that were initially used for data collection.

First, a search was conducted with the single term “competence” to prove the availability of studies with the research objective. To reduce the high number of initial results and restrict the search field on the conceptualization and definition of the term competence, the keywords “framework” and “concept” were added to the search term (search string 1). Subsequently, the search string 2 was applied with respect to entrepreneurial competence. The following search strings articulate the final search logic that was applied in the study to find relevant literature for definition and conceptualization of competence (1) and entrepreneurial competence (2):

Kompetenz OR Competenc* AND (Framework OR Concept)

(Entrepreneur* AND competenc*) OR Unternehmer* AND Kompetenz

The search strings include the following variations of the German and English terms: (a) Competence, competences, competency, competencies; (b) Entrepreneur: entrepreneurship, entrepreneur, entrepreneurial; and (c) Unternehmer, Unternehmertum, unternehmerische.

The search strings were slightly modified to meet the specific configuration requirements for each database.

Study selection strategy

An in-depth understanding of the conceptualization of EC requires the analysis of the state-of-the-art of the concept of competence in its origins. Thus, a search was conducted to identify relevant articles for the definitions and conceptualizations of the term competence in interdisciplinary, pedagogic, and policy databases: Pedocs, ERIC, JRC and Google Scholar. Due to the tremendous number of initial hits (over 3 mill.), the following inclusion criteria were applied:

Explicit definition of competence.

Peer reviewed article.

Official policy paper.

Concept of competence as a central issue in the article or book.

Next, we applied the search and selection strategy for literature on EC shown in Fig. 1 . The main objective was to identify studies that fulfill the following inclusion criteria:

Published between 2008 and 2018.

Includes a definition of EC.

Includes a list of ECs.

Literature search and selection strategy for entrepreneurial competence

The initial search for EC included the related, subsumable and translated terms (see Table 2 ) and generated over 4400 hits with different degree of relevance for the study. After a first selective revision of articles and identification of the existing cases, it emerged that most studies were not relevant for our research questions. In particular, the related terms produced a high number of articles that were out of scope dealing, for instance, with agriculture, accounting or banking. These terms were excluded in the revised search string. Sources that were not accessible through databases or not obtainable online or in local libraries were also excluded from the list. Systematic literature reviews, research articles, books, and working papers dealing with entrepreneurial competences were included in the final list.

As a result, 38 key articles on the concept of competence and 32 papers that include both a definition of EC and a list of ECs were identified. A final list of the selected research on EC is given in Table 3 . In this section, the search results are presented. A discussion and a conceptual synthesis of the respective findings can be found in “ Discussion and conceptual synthesis ” section.

Definitions of competence

With respect to RQ 1, 12 definitions of competence were identified and are given in Table 4 . To present a panoramic view on the concept, we identified well-established and recognized definitions on policy level in the European Union, the USA, Germany, as well as other prominent sources in education science (Weinert 2001 ) as well as occupational, pedagogical and psychological perspective (Erpenbeck and Von Rosenstiel 2011 ). On first sight, the authors use different approaches, terms, and components to define “competence.” A closer look however reveals a shared understanding of the concept which is discussed in “ Discussion and conceptual synthesis ” section.

Categories of competence

Five approaches with 14 different categories of competence were identified and are given in Table 5 . Four of the five sources are policy sources from the European Union (EU Council), Germany (German Qualification Framework DQR, The Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs KMK), and the USA (National Research Council). Moreover, the study includes the handbook for competence assessment from the occupational, pedagogical, and psychological perspective (Erpenbeck and Von Rosenstiel 2011 ). The categories given in Table 5 provide the first indication of potential competence areas. They can be condensed into three main categories: personal competence, social competence and domain competence.

Definitions of entrepreneurial competence

To address RQ 2 and the related sub-questions, we identified 33 articles (Table 3 ) that primarily deal with entrepreneurial competences, present explicit definitions and list competences that are relevant for entrepreneurship (inclusion criteria). In most cases, the authors cited other sources for the definition and specification of ECs. With respect to SQ 2.1 and SQ 2.2, a citation network (Fig. 2 ) was developed using the igraph package in R. The network diagram depicts citation network of authors in the research field of ECs. The size of the knots indicates the frequency of definition citations of EC by other authors. As a result, Fig. 2 illustrates that the authors Bird ( 1995 ), Man et al. ( 2002 ) and Mitchelmore and Rowley ( 2010 ) are indicated as the most cited authors when introducing and defining the term “Entrepreneurial Competence.” The respective definitions of the key authors and the number of their citations are given in Table 6 . Moreover, we identified these authors to be of vital importance not only with regard to the definitions but also for categorization and the listing of ECs.

Citation network: definitions of entrepreneurial competence

Categories of entrepreneurial competence

With respect to the categorization of ECs (SQ 2.3), we identified seven authors with 22 different categories. The categorization approaches of ECs used by the authors are given in Table 7 . Moreover, the search was extended to find entrepreneurship-related categories and to prove if they could be used for an appropriate ECs categorization framework (see Table 8 ). For instance, the phases of venture development and the processes might serve as an inspiration or even as an appropriate categorization approach. We also considered the key activities and components of a venture by integrating the nine building blocks of the prominent business model canvas (Osterwalder and Pigneur 2010 ).

Entrepreneurial competences discussed in the literature

With respect to RQ 3, we compiled a list with 376 ECs (long list) mentioned and discussed in the entrepreneurship literature. Following the procedure in “ Definitions of entrepreneurial competence ” section, we wanted to identify the most prominent sources with a well-established and recognized list of ECs. Unfortunately, a citation network could not provide much clarity as the citations are widely scattered. This fact shows another lack of consensus and clarity in the entrepreneurship community. A citation cluster as we find it in the definitions of EC could not be identified. Thus it can be stated that a consistent and generally accepted source for ECs does not exist in the scientific entrepreneurship literature.

Algorithm for selection of ECs

Upon closer inspection, moreover, we identified an apparent ontological inconsistency in the lists of ECs. Many authors present not only ECs in the narrow sense but a mix of competences, skills, traits and other constructs that are relevant for entrepreneurial action. To consolidate the list, we applied the selection strategy illustrated in Fig. 3 . First, we eliminated the duplicates from the long list using a spreadsheet software. Subsequently, we identified synonyms (negotiations, negotiating, negotiate) reducing the list to 108 items. After the elimination of traits, the record still included other psychological constructs such as abilities, awareness and attitudes that we compiled in the column “other categories.” As a result, we developed a consolidated list of ECs from all 32 literature sources identified by this study, including 57 ECs. Moreover, analyzing the ontology of the terms, we identified and classified the items in three categories: entrepreneurial competence, personal traits and other categories. To ensure the validity and completeness of the final list, we revisited the collection of other prominent authors in the field of EC and confirmed the representation of our list. For that reason, we identified the authors Mitchelmore and Rowley ( 2010 ), Komarkova et al. ( 2015 ), Man et al. ( 2002 ), and Chandler and Jansen ( 1992 ) as four important authors in our list as they represent research work on ECs from different decades. Moreover, the lists of Mitchelmore and Rowley ( 2010 ) and ( 2015 ) are generated through in-depth former literature analysis and a desk review. Man et al. ( 2002 ) examined previous empirical studies in ECs and presented six competence areas with a short definition of behavioral focus. Chandler and Jansen ( 1992 ), on the other hand, surveyed with founders in different types of businesses and provided a list of self-perceived ECs (p. 228).

To consolidate the EC list of the four authors with 126 items in total, we also applied the algorithm by eliminating the duplicates and synonyms, traits and other constructs reducing the list to 32 competences. Based on that we compared our list with those of the authors ensuring and confirming that all 32 items are included in our final list.

The final list of ECs including personal traits and other categories is presented in Table 9 .

Discussion and conceptual synthesis

As stated above, the goal of entrepreneurship education is to prepare students for entrepreneurial practice, which implies the development of entrepreneurial competences. In order to develop an appropriate education and training program for future entrepreneurs, educators first need a clear understanding of the meaning of the concept to be able to operationalize the development and evaluation of competence in their academic settings. For that reason, we first conduct a critical analysis of the terms “competence” and “entrepreneurial competence” in order to decompose the concepts into their components and determine a clear definition of both terms. Next, we review and discuss the categorization approaches of competence and EC in order to develop a framework for ECs. Furthermore, in their systematic literature review, Mitchelmore and Rowley ( 2010 , p. 93) describe EC as a “specific group of competencies relevant to the exercise of successful entrepreneurship.” Unfortunately, the question remains open what exactly is the “specific group” and which competences does it include? For that reason, we condense the ECs mentioned in the literature and develop a consolidated list of ECs.

Clarification and organization of competence

The search strategy in our research provided the identification of 12 different definitions of competence (Table 4 ). However, in his study on competence development in organizations, Mulder ( 2002 ) found and compared over 40 different definitions of this term. It is a remarkable fact that the term is used neither uniformly nor always appropriately in the literature (Bunk 1994 ). Moreover, the term is associated with different traditions in different countries and is underpinned by contrasting motivations for use in different fields, such as Human Resource Development as well as Vocational Education and Training (Sultana 2009 ). As a result, the attempts to establish a consistent terminology of competence had a little impact today (Deist and Winterton 2005 ). In order to fully understand and classify the various concepts of entrepreneurial competence, challenges, and also its implications for the development of entrepreneurship education, an in-depth understanding of competence is needed. Comprehensive in-depth analysis of the competence debate can be found in the work of Deist and Winterton ( 2005 ), Mulder ( 2007 ), Schaper et al. ( 2012 ) and Sultana ( 2009 ). Based on different perspectives depicted by the authors, we give a thematic overview and classification of the competence debate and present its different approaches and views.

The development of competence approaches in different regions and contexts was triggered by a fast pace of economic change and globalized competition in the markets. The socioeconomic challenges, therefore, required a long-term strategy and renewed the popularity of competence-based approaches in education and training systems (Sultana 2009 ). With its long history, many facets of competence have been developed in various contexts (geographically, domain, and context-specific).

As one of the first authors, White ( 1959 ) is credited for the introduction of the term competence to describe personality characteristics associated with superior performance and high motivation (Deist and Winterton 2005 ). Later in the early 1970s, researchers and practitioners were concerned about the extensive measures of personality traits, skills, intelligence, and attitudes to identify and develop successful and effective leaders and company managers. Unfortunately, these tests turned out to be poor predictors of job performance and critical for validation. However, in particular, in the zeitgeist of intelligence tests, McClelland ( 1973 ) introduced the concept of competence for prediction of personal success. With this background, competence approaches initially focused on performance at the expense of complex intellectual processes and reflection in and on action (Sultana 2009 ). Different practice-oriented competence approaches (see work of Boyatzis 1982 ; Schroder 1989 ; Spencer 1983) evolved to identify, develop and assess the capabilities of managers that were later adopted and refined in other fields, such as Vocational Education and Training (VET) in the USA, Australia and Europe.

In the context of business management and administration, the resource-based view (RBV) (Barney 1991 ; Barney and Arikan 2001 ) became an influential economic theory. The RBV emphasizes the internal core resources (i.e., internal competences) of the firm being of vital importance to gain a competitive advantage in globalized and highly competitive markets. Moreover, core competences were understood as being at the root of core products (Mulder 2007 ; Prahalad and Hamel 1990 ).

As stated above, there is a high variety of meanings and definitions of competence. This fact makes competence an unclear and “fuzzy concept” (Deist and Winterton 2005 , p. 29). The term “competence” is interpreted and defined in terms of its meaning very differently depending on the specific context of use. Primarily, competence is used to describe the abilities and dispositions to cope with context-specific requirements (Schaper et al. 2012 , p. 12). Mulder ( 2007 ) identifies four categories of contexts in which competence can be used: Institutional, jurisdictional, organizational and personal. Consequently, the concept can be used in this context for accreditation, appropriateness, approval, authorization, certification, entitlement, jurisdiction, license, responsibility, qualification and right (ibid, p. 7).

Based on the discussion and definitions in Table 4, we consider competence as

the disposition to generate adequate actions to responsibly solve problems in variable situations. This ability is based on knowledge, skills and attitudes.

In this section, we analyze the existing categories of competence compiled in Table 5 to give a summary of existing approaches and to develop an appropriate categorization approach that can be used for the concept of competence and subsequently entrepreneurial competence.

The Oxford Dictionary Footnote 1 defines a category as a “class or division of people or things regarded as having particular shared characteristics.” Moreover, in philosophy, a category is defined as “Each of a possibly exhaustive set of classes among which all things might be distributed” (ibid).

The original work on the process and rules of classification can be found in Bailey ( 1994 ). According to (Bailey 1994 , p. 1) classification is defined as “the ordering of entities into groups or classes on the basis of their similarity.” He discusses the role of taxonomies and typologies in social science and presents the following advantages of classification:

Description of types.

Reduction of Complexity.

Identification of similarities of cases.

Identification of differences of cases.

Presenting an exhaustive list of dimensions.

Comparison of types.

The inventory and management of types.

The study of relationships.

Types as criteria for measurement.

Versatility.

One of the purposes of the study is to create a consolidated and classified list of ECs that can be used as a scientific foundation for the development of competence-oriented entrepreneurship courses. In addition to the advantages of classification stated above, the classification framework of entrepreneurial competences (CFEC) needs to fulfill the following requirements and be applicable under conditions stated below:

Target Groups Students with a technical engineering background, entrepreneurs, coaches, people responsible for intrapreneurship programs and accelerator programs in established companies and entrepreneurship support organizations.

Objective of the CFEC Portray the specific characteristics of competences needed in entrepreneurship domain and classify them in meaningful clusters. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the ECs and can classify the ECs into appropriate categories. Develop a clear understanding of the difference between the concept of competence, traits and other concepts that are related to the entrepreneurship but are explicitly not competences according to the standard definitions of competence.

Application fields of the CFEC Entrepreneurship courses and lectures, accelerator programs, innovation projects within and outside established companies to compare, reflect on and develop ECs in own contexts.

In this study, five established approaches with 14 categories of competence were identified and are presented in Table 5 . It emerges that the categories can be semantically grouped on three levels: personal level (self- or personal competence and learning competence), social level (interpersonal domain and social-communicative competence) and professional/domain level (functional competence, professional and method competence). Table 10 presents prominent definitions of the categories. Based on that it can be summarized that the common sense of the definition of personal competence implies a person’s disposition to act reflexively self-organized and in a responsible manner to develop and reach personal goals in different contexts.

Social competence is also described as an interpersonal competence. It refers to appropriate actions and responsible behavior in a social context such as communication, cooperation, problem solving and leadership.

Domain (also professional) competence is described as the disposition of a person to act and solve domain-specific tasks and problems by using appropriate methods, and domain-specific knowledge and skills. Domain competence is seen as the generic, integrated and internalized disposition to deliver sustainable effective performance (including realizing innovation, and creating transformation) in a certain professional domain, job, role, organizational context and task situation (Mulder 2014 , p. 3).

Based on the categorizations and their definitions identified in this study, we suggest the following three categorizations and definitions for competence:

Domain competence encompasses knowledge, skills and attitudes that constitute the disposition to process tasks in an autonomous, professionally appropriate and methodical manner and to evaluate the result.

Personal competence describes a person’s disposition to develop further and to shape his or her own life autonomously and responsibly within the particular social, cultural or occupational context.

Social competence describes a person’s disposition to work together with others in a target-oriented manner, understand the interests and social situations of others, deal with and communicate with others rationally and responsibly and be involved in shaping the world of work and the lifeworld.

Clarification and organization of the concept entrepreneurial competence

A clear definition of EC does not exist as agreed structure, and a shared understanding of the term is still missing in the literature (Komarkova et al. 2015 ). In the following chapter, we focus on the different components used by the authors and clarify their meanings and implications. For that reason, the definitions of Man et al. ( 2002 ), Bird ( 1995 ) and Mitchelmore and Rowley ( 2010 ) are presented and decomposed in Fig.  4 . The components knowledge and skills are identical to the definitions we found in the conceptualizations of competence. However, in the entrepreneurial domain, we also find additional components such as traits, motives, self- images and social roles. We, therefore, clarify the terms and their relationship to each other to determine the core components and the specific characteristics of an EC.

Components of entrepreneurial competence

Knowledge “Knowledge means the outcome of the assimilation of information through learning. Knowledge is the body of facts, principles, theories and practices that is related to a field of work or study. In the context of the EQF, there are two types of knowledge: theoretical and/or factual (EU 2017 , p. 20).

From an educational perspective, prominent foundations of the knowledge concept were developed by Bloom ( 1956 ). In 2002 however, Krathwohl ( 2002 ) published an overview of an updated version of Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational objectives (Bloom et al. 1984 ). This revised taxonomy attempts to correct some of the challenges with the original taxonomy. In his version, Krathwohl differentiates between the content of thinking ( knowing what ), and the procedures used in solving problems ( knowing how ). He introduced a new structure of knowledge dimensions with four, instead of three main types of knowledge (p. 214):

Factual knowledge The basic elements that students must know to be acquainted with a discipline or solve problems in it (Knowledge of terminology; Knowledge of specific details and elements).

Conceptual Knowledge The interrelationships among the basic elements within a larger structure that enable them to function together (Knowledge of classifications and categories; Knowledge of principles and generalizations; Knowledge of theories, models, and structures).

Procedural Knowledge How to do something; methods of inquiry, and criteria for using skills, algorithms, techniques, and methods (Knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms; Knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods; Knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures).

Metacognitive Knowledge Knowledge of cognition in general as well as awareness and knowledge of one’s own cognition (Strategic knowledge; Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and conditional knowledge; Self-knowledge).

Skills An individual needs a profound knowledge which is then applied in a given situation to solve problems and complete tasks. “Skills mean the ability to apply knowledge and use know-how to complete tasks and solve problems. (...) Skills are described as cognitive (involving the use of logical, intuitive and creative thinking) or practical (involving manual dexterity and the use of methods, materials, tools and instruments)” (EU 2017 , p. 20). Moreover, the National Research Council ( 2012 ) describes skills as

knowledge that can be transferred in new situations. Transferable knowledge includes content knowledge in a domain and knowledge of how, why and when to apply this knowledge to answer questions and solve problems. This latter dimension of transferable knowledge—how, why and when to apply content knowledge—is often referred to in terms of “skill” (p. 2-2).

In other words, to complete tasks and solve problems in different situations, knowledge needs to be applied. Skill as a concept that transfers knowledge into action is, therefore, a crucial second component of competence.

Attitude “An attitude is a disposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to an object, person, institution or event (Ajzen 2005 , p. 3)”. Ajzen ( 2005 ) describes the term attitude as a “hypothetical construct” that is inaccessible to direct observation. However, attitudes allow positive or negative evaluations and therefore, can be measured through responses and or observations of human behavior (ibid). According to Ajzen, there are three categories of responses that go back to Plato: cognitive responses, affective responses and conative responses. Cognitive responses reflect perceptions of, and thoughts about, the attitude object. Affective responses on the other hand, can be described as feelings toward an object of attitude, while canative responses are described as action and behavior concerning the attitude object. In other words, attitudes determine a positive or negative effect on thoughts, feelings and actions. An unfavorable attitude toward an object or an event (i.e., becoming an entrepreneur) has a high negative impact on the behavior (performance) or decisions of the individual. In empirical educational research, performance is a critical requirement for demonstration, assessment and certification of an individual’s competence. For that reason, we see attitude as the third component of competence.

Personality Trait “A personality trait is defined as a characteristic of an individual that exerts a pervasive influence on a broad range of trait-relevant responses” (Ajzen 2005 , p. 2). According to Ajzen ( 2005 ), most social scientists agree on the evaluative nature of attitudes as they manifest themselves in a wide variety of observable responses (p. 3). In contrast to that personality traits describe response tendencies (i.e., to be sociable or self-confident) and are not necessarily evaluative (p. 6). While attitudes are viewed as more alterable and open to transformation, personality traits are assumed to be relatively stable over time. They focus on the individual him or herself, and they can thus be used to differentiate between individuals and to classify them in different personality types. The most prominent personality traits are defined by Goldberg ( 1990 ) as the “Big Five” factors:

Surgency (or extraversion),

Agreeableness,

Conscientiousness (or dependability),

Emotional stability (vs. neuroticism) and

Culture (or openness to experience)

Personality traits are viewed to be relatively stable and difficult to change. For that reason, they are not the best objective for development in entrepreneurial education settings. Personality traits are developed independently from education programs so that the person already possesses a specific set of traits and personal characteristics. They, of course, are a part of an entrepreneurial personality and can support learning and decision processes but in contrast to traits, knowledge, skills, and attitudes are the pedagogically recognized target objects to be developed and can be measured in academic settings. With this background, we do not include personality trait, as suggested by Bird ( 1995 ), is an integral component of an EC.

Self-image The concept of self-image is defined by Rosenberg ( 2015 ) as an attitude. “We conceive of the self-image as an attitude toward an object” (p. 5). It is congruent to the conceptualization of attitude by Ajzen ( 2005 ) and is therefore not an additional component of competence but an attitude toward him or herself.

Social Role “A social role is (...) defined as a set of expectations oriented toward people who occupy a certain position in a social system or group” (Gouldner 1957 , p. 282). To get a clear understanding of the concept of social role, the concept of social status needs to be considered first. Social status is “a position in a particular pattern which is a collection of rights and duties” (Linton 1936 , p. 113). Therefore, as stated by Gouldner ( 1957 ), a social role is considered to be a set of expectations toward people in a specific social position or status. The individual and society reinforce expectations, rights, duties and responsibilities that are connected to a social role and help people to find orientation and define an expected behavior in different situations. A social role, according to the underlying definition, is not an internal part of and is not controlled by the individual. A social role may indirectly contribute to the development of competence in a specific domain or even influence an attitude toward an object or an event. In this case, the expectations and duties (social roles) may have a direct effect on the three levels of attitude. As shown above, the concept of attitude is already an integral part of competence. In conclusion, the concept of social role is not an integral part of competence.

Motive A branch of psychology is motivational psychology. It deals with the research and explanation of purposeful human behavior and motivations, the “why” and “what for” that causes people to do or not do certain things. According to the McClelland, a motive (lat. Motus = motion, drive) is a “recurrent concern for a particular goal state, based on a natural incentive that energizes, orients and selects behavior” (McClelland 1985 , p. 590). In other words, it is a reason for doing something. Thus, motives are considered to be components of self-control, as they enable the satisfaction of needs (Theilengerdes 2012 , p. 19). The Theory of Needs, as proposed by McClelland ( 1985 ), states that human behavior is affected by three motivational factors—Need for Power, Need for Achievement, and Need for Affiliation. His studies indicate that there is a strong positive correlation between the need for achievement and performance. Moreover, he found that a country’s economic development largely depends on the extent to which its citizens have the need for achievement (McClelland 1967 ).

(Murray, 1938 , p. 80) states that “Actions which express what is commonly called ambition, will-to-power, desire for accomplishment and prestige have been classified as follows:

Need for Superiority The need for achievement (will-to-power over things, people and ideas) and the need for recognition (efforts to gain approval and high social status).

Need for Achievement To overcome obstacles, to exercise power, to strive to do something difficult as well and as quickly as possible (...).

Need for Recognition To excite praise and commendation; to demand respect; to boast and exhibit one’s accomplishments; to seek distinction, social prestige, honors or high office.”

Gartner ( 1985 ) recognized the need for achievement as an essential psychological characteristic of an entrepreneur. As described above, the concept of a motive is highly interconnected with our needs. A closer look at the theory of needs reveals that need for achievement, for instance, is a psychological characteristic and is in line with the definition of a personality trait by Ajzen ( 2005 ). Moreover, the research provided evidence that personality traits influence the realization of implicit motives (Hofer et al. 2015 ). Internal factors, such as personality traits and the individual structure of needs, as well as external factors (social norms and cultural characteristics), may result in different motives for behavior and performance. As described above, personality traits are relatively stable over time and challenging to change from outside. As external factors, culture and social norms are fix components and cannot be addressed for development in an academic setting so that the concept of a motive as suggested by Bird is not an integral part of an EC.

In 2015, the European Commission published a report on entrepreneurship competence that presents state-of-the-art identifying and comparing different theoretical and practical approaches from the academic and entrepreneurial world (see Komarkova et al. 2015 ). In order to define competence, the authors refer to the recommendation of the European Parliament (EU 2006 ) that defines competences as “knowledge, skills and attitudes” (p. 13). Another policy source is the OECD background paper by Lackeus ( 2015 ) who also found three basics components of a competence: “Entrepreneurial competencies are defined here as knowledge, skills and attitudes that affect the willingness and ability to perform the entrepreneurial job of new value creation” (p. 12).

Based on the discussion above, we consider an entrepreneurial competence as

the specific set of domain competences, social competences and personal competences needed to generate entrepreneurial action.

In “ Results ” section, we present categories of competence and entrepreneurial competence (Tables  5 , 8 ) identified in the literature. In addition to that in Table 8 , we expanded our view and collected potential entrepreneurship-related categories to cover a wide variety of options as a basis for structuring and categorizing ECs. Based on the list of ECs identified in the literature, we critically examine the categories suggested by the authors and review their choices for classification.

The categorization approaches in Table  5 show different concepts in the entrepreneurship domain such as competence (Man et al. 2002 ), skills (Schallenkamp and Smith 2008 ), motive and traits (Bird 1995 ), domain field (Komarkova et al. 2015 ) and general terms (Bacigalupo et al. 2016 ). Moreover, in Table  9, we find processes and venture development phases (Moberg et al. 2014 ; Chell and Athayde 2009 ; Glasl and Lievegoed 1993 ), different areas as a framework for venture creation (Gartner 1985 ), and building blocks of a venture (Osterwalder and Pigneur 2010 ) as the distinctive elements. In particular, concerning ECs, we find a heterogeneous view on the classification of ECs. Furthermore, it is not clear how the authors developed the categories and which methods they used for classification.

Intuitively, a process-based classification would serve as a good overview and insight into a venture development process. A framework for venture development would be beneficial for students and other stakeholders. Unfortunately, the phases and processes are neither distinct and linear nor standardized for different projects, markets and products. Instead, the processes are interconnected and recurring. The lean start-up method by Ries ( 2011 ) suggest a cyclical and interactive approach to venture creation. In this case, the categories could not provide the criteria of exhaustiveness and mutually exclusives.

However, the venture creation processes take place on different levels and include various categories of competences. Based on the types given in Tables  5 , 8 and 7 , three levels could be identified: (1) personal or individual level, (2) interpersonal or team level and (3) domain-specific expertise level. First, the entrepreneur and the team members need competences on a personal level such as acting proactively, process and understand complex information and recognize their limitation by reflection in their behavior, decisions and actions. Next, as they interact with the stakeholder inside and outside the company, they need social competences for communication, problem solving, upholding the spirit and the positive atmosphere within the team members and external partners. Finally, domain competences are needed to identify an opportunity, develop an organization and exploit the opportunity (3).

Based on the consolidated list of ECs in Table  7 , we inductively developed a categorization framework and categories that similarly were introduced by Man et al. ( 2002 ). As a final result of the study, we adapt the categorizations to the requirements of the CFEC, consolidate the ECs from the literature review and suggest the list of ECs integrated into a framework for the CFEC. Considering the scope and aim of the study and the CFEC requirements, we transfer the general wording of the ECs into a competence-oriented version using the infinitive of suggested verbs. However, we excluded four items from the consolidated list: “Managerial competence” is a sub-category of a domain competence and can be classified in the “Strategic and Management” competence category. “Operational competences,” on the other hand, cover the daily, hands-on individual efforts required to deliver results of given tasks. It is a sub-category of management competence and can be described as “Operation management.” We did not find any specific competences in the literature that we could subsume to that category. It is also the case with “political” and “technical” competence, and therefore, we exclude the categories from our list. “Technical competence,” however, is a particular category of domain competence. Undoubtedly, it is of vital importance for the creation of a specific type of new ventures, especially the new technology-based firms (NTBF) but no specific competence could be identified in our list that could be classified into this category (Fig. 5 ).

Categorized framework of entrepreneurial competence

Conclusions and limitations of the study

The systematic literature review on entrepreneurial competences provided a comprehensive insight into the conceptualization and categorization of the terms “competence” and “entrepreneurial competence.” We identified different approaches for the definition and categorization of both terms. As a result, we present a variety of perspectives and the potential applications of the concepts. Although many definitions of competence exist, they have in common that competence includes the essential elements—knowledge, skills, and attitudes—to solve problems in variable situations.

We conclude that domain competence, personal and social competence are appropriate categories for competence. In the domain of entrepreneurship, we identified the key authors on the definitions of EC, compiled their definitions, and present a consolidated list of ECs that we found in the lists of the authors. We apply the categorization approaches to the ECs in order to give educators assistance for the development of competence-oriented entrepreneurship courses. However, it cannot necessarily provide the answer to the question: What are the most decisive ECs?

As a suggestion for further research, we propose to further examine the variety of ECs and develop a scientifically sound and consolidated recommendation for vital ECs that should be developed in entrepreneurship classes. Moreover, we observe that knowledge, skills and attitudes as the fundamental components of competence are often used without a critical discussion and classification, and differentiation by the authors in the entrepreneurship domain. A clear understanding of the psychological concepts, such as traits, motives, and attitudes would help the scientific community, coaches and trainers as well as the entrepreneurs to create a clear understanding of necessary activities and the required competences for personal development, team formation, and the construction, conduction and assessment of education programs.

Based on the insights from the study, we developed a classification framework of ECs and suggested a consolidated list of ECs. The identified main categories are (1) domain competence, (2) personal competence and (3) relationship competence. For domain competence, we found three subcategories that characterize the entrepreneurship domain: opportunity recognition, organizational and strategic and management competence. It is evident, however, that not all of the mentioned competences can be developed in the entrepreneurship education settings. Many of the competences, especially the strategic and management competences, will be developed in a practical business environment or specific business administration degree programs. Entrepreneurship education and research is still a young discipline. The historical roots of its regional, contextual and functional development caused the heterogeneity in learning objectives, training methods and evaluation approaches as well as a great variety in definitions of key terms like entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial competence. The purpose of the CEC is therefore not to define an exhaustive list ECs that should be taught in academic classes but to present an accurate inventory of ECs and their categories. It is a recommendation and an opportunity for future research to investigate and find a common understanding of the essence of ECs for entrepreneurship education.

The study was performed according to the guidelines for systematic literature reviews by Kitchenham and Charters ( 2007 ). The systematic and unbiased identification of relevant research is of vital importance for the results and conceptualization of the topic. In fact, due to the search strategy and the application of the search string, we had to deal with a significant amount of potentially relevant publications. It cannot be excluded that some of the critical research was not recognized or not captured by the search strategy. In particular, concerning the limited period 2008–2018, it is possible that we missed essential insights from previous years of research. In this context, the list of ECs presented in Table  7 and in the final CEC framework may not be exhaustive. For instance, the key term “Business Model” is not indicated in our list. It is undoubtedly one of the critical ECs students need to prepare in entrepreneurial classes around the world as well as entrepreneurs need to develop to operate and acquire financial resources from investors.

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Tittel, A., Terzidis, O. Entrepreneurial competences revised: developing a consolidated and categorized list of entrepreneurial competences. Entrep Educ 3 , 1–35 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41959-019-00021-4

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4 Entrepreneurial Traits, Skills and Abilities

Task Summary:

Lesson 2.1.1: Entrepreneurial Uniqueness

Lesson 2.1.2: Entrepreneurial Personality Traits

Lesson 2.1.3: Beyond Personality Traits, Skills & Abilities

Activity 2.1.1: Read/Watch/Listen

Activity 2.1.2: Journal Entry

Learning Outcomes:

• Reflect on entrepreneurial uniqueness
• Assess the value of analyzing entrepreneurial traits
• Consider the importance of analyzing entrepreneurial skills and abilities
• Validate the importance of perseverance

So what makes an entrepreneur different from a preferences and abilities lens than someone who does not want to be an entrepreneur? What consistently makes these individuals unique? Do you yourself have what it takes to become an entrepreneur? Having a great concept is not enough. An entrepreneur must be able to develop and manage the company that implements his or her idea. Being an entrepreneur requires special drive, perseverance, passion, and a spirit of adventure, in addition to managerial and technical ability.

Entrepreneurs are the company; they tend to work longer hours, take fewer vacations, and cannot leave problems at the office at the end of the day. They also share other common characteristics, but what are these characteristics?

• Need for achievement
• Internal locus of control (a belief by an individual that they are in control of their own destiny)
• Risk-taking propensity

Past studies of personality characteristics and behavioral traits have not been overly successful at identifying entrepreneurial uniqueness. As it turned out, years of painstaking research along this line has not borne significant fruit. It appears that there are simply not any personality characteristics that are either essential to, or defining of, entrepreneurs that differ systematically from non-entrepreneurs…. Again, investigators proposed a number of behavioral candidates as emblematic of entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, this line of research also resulted in a series of dead ends as examples of successful entrepreneurial behaviors had equal counterparts among samples of non-entrepreneurs. As with the personality characteristic school of thought before it, the behavioral trait school of thought became increasingly difficult to support (Duening, 2010, p. 4-5).

This shed doubt on the value of trying to change personality characteristics or implant new entrepreneurial behaviors through educational programs in an effort to promote entrepreneurship. New research, however, has resurrected the idea that there might be some value in revisiting personality traits as a topic of study. Additionally, Duening (2010) and has suggested that an important approach to teaching and learning about entrepreneurship is to focus on the “cognitive skills that successful entrepreneurs seem uniquely to possess and deploy” (p. 2).

While acknowledging that research had yet to validate the value of considering personality and behavior traits as ways to distinguish entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs or unsuccessful ones, Chell (2008) suggested that researchers turn their attention to new sets of traits including: “the proactive personality, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, perseverance, and intuitive decision-making. Other traits that require further work include social competence and the need for independence” (p. 140).

In more recent years scholars have considered how the Big Five personality traits – extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism (sometimes presented as emotional stability), and openness to experience (sometimes referred to as intellect) – might be used to better understand entrepreneurs. It appears that the Big Five traits might be of some use in predicting entrepreneurial success. Research is ongoing in this area, but in one example, Caliendo, Fossen, and Kritikos (2014) studied whether personality constructs might “influence entrepreneurial decisions at different points in time” (p. 807), and found that “high values in three factors of the Big Five approach—openness to experience, extraversion, and emotional stability (the latter only when we do not control for further personality characteristics)—increase the probability of entry into self-employment” (p. 807). They also found “that some specific personality characteristics, namely risk tolerance, locus of control, and trust, have strong partial effects on the entry decision” (p. 807). They also found that people who scored higher on agreeableness were more likely to exit their businesses, possibly meaning that people with lower agreeableness scores might prevail longer as entrepreneurs. When it came to specific personality traits, their conclusions indicated that those with an external locus of control were more likely to stop being self-employed after they had run their businesses for a while.

There are several implications for research like this, including the potential to better understand why some entrepreneurs behave as they do base upon their personality types and the chance to improve entrepreneurship education and support services.

A person with all the personality traits of an entrepreneur might still lack the necessary business skills to run a successful company. Entrepreneurs need the technical knowledge to carry out their ideas and the managerial ability to organize a company, develop operating strategies, obtain financing, and supervise day-to-day activities. Beyond basic business, good interpersonal and communication skills are important in dealing with employees, customers, and other business associates such as bankers, accountants, and attorneys. And then there’s perseverance.

When Jim Steiner started his toner cartridge remanufacturing business, Quality Imaging Products , his initial investment was $400. He spent $200 on a consultant to teach him the business and $200 on materials to rebuild his first printer cartridges. He made sales calls from 8.00 a.m. to noon and made deliveries to customers from noon until 5:00 p.m. After a quick dinner, he moved to the garage, where he filled copier cartridges until midnight, when he collapsed into bed, sometimes covered with carbon soot. And this was not something he did for a couple of weeks until he got the business off the ground—this was his life for 18 months (McFarland, 2005). This brief story is a great example of how perseverance is a key factor in entrepreneurial success.

In Unit 3 we will start to embark on the entrepreneurial process. To prepare for this and continue practicing your entrepreneurial resource gathering and innovation skills, your task is to search through the resources linked below to identify an entrepreneur who emulates the characteristics you have learned about and had success living out the definition of entrepreneurship you have started to craft throughout this module.

Reflect on the characteristics that appeal to you the most, and reflect on how the characteristics and your definition of entrepreneurship from Unit 1 have both enabled the success of this individual, and how you might be able to create your own success developing these characteristics over the next 18 months.

The key steps are:

• Research the links below
• Identify an entrepreneur from these resources you admire
• Reflect on what entrepreneurial theme from Lesson 2 within which they have had success
• Reflect on how their success relates to your own draft definition of entrepreneurship (does it change it? support it? why?)
• Reflect on how you can create your own success using the theme and your definition of entrepreneurship over the next 18 months
• Read this article on Entrepreneurial Skills
• Read this article on Entrepreneurial Thinkers
• Read this article on Entrepreneurial Characteristics

As a reminder, journaling can be a really powerful way to learn because it gets us to pause and reflect not only on what we have learned but also on what it means to us. Journaling makes meaning of material in a way that is personal and powerful.

It’s time to reflect on your Unit 2, Module 1 learning experience. Part of being an entrepreneur requires a notable degree of self-reflection and self-awareness. This journal entry is all about the learning experience that you have had thus far. Identify your learning strengths, and what has come easily to you as you have gone through the first module of the course. Also, identify the areas which you want to strengthen and improve on from a learning perspective. Keep in mind this journal entry is not about the content you have learned, but rather how you have learned, and the Learning Experience. This is intended to help you better understand yourself as a learner, which is really important as you go through not only this course but also the rest of your education. Your journal entries should be either 150 to 300 written words or a video that is approximately 4 minutes.

Using your own experience and the course material, reflect in your journal (blog, vlog, etc) on all of the following prompts for this module:

• Key Concepts you have learned that help you better understand entrepreneurship
• If there was not a particular concept that was easy to understand, reflect on why this was the case
• If there was not a particular concept that was difficult to understand, reflect on why this was the case

Next, note the key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs (aim for one or two sentences).

Media Attributions

• Photo of the brain by Elisa Riva on Pixabay .

Text Attributions

• The content related to entrepreneurial traits, skills, and abilities was taken from “ Entrepreneurship and Innovation Toolkit, 3rd Edition ” by L. Swanson (2017) CC BY-SA
• The content related to entrepreneurial traits, skills, and abilities was taken from “ Introduction to Business” by Gitman et al. (2012) CC BY

Caliendo, M., Fossen, F., & Kritikos, A. S. (2014). Personality characteristics and the decisions to become and stay self-employed. Small Business Economics, 42 (4), 787-814. doi:10.1007/s11187-013-9514-8

Chell, E. (2008). The entrepreneurial personality: A social construction (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

Duening, T. N. (2010). Five minds for the entrepreneurial future: Cognitive skills as the intellectual foundation for next generation entrepreneurship curricula. Journal of Entrepreneurship , 19 (1), 1-22. doi:10.1177/097135570901900101

Introduction to Entrepreneurship Copyright © 2021 by Katherine Carpenter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Personal Entrepreneurial Development

Introduction

Entrepreneurship simply means a pursuit of new ventures regardless of the available resources. An entrepreneur is a person who undertakes the pursuit of an organization arising from availability of a new opportunity. This essay describes personal journey to acquire the necessary entrepreneurial skills and my entrepreneurial profile. Entrepreneurial skills are the characteristics of an individual to detect any new opportunities and stating up of an effective organization in pursuit of the opportunities. This paper also defines the necessary entrepreneurial skills. The main tasks of an entrepreneur are innovation, profit making, recognition of opportunities, change and creation of ventures. The development process of an entrepreneur is psychological process which must also involve psychological tests and assessments, as this paper describes. However, the roles of the entrepreneur are more economical than psychological. The essay also gives a detailed entrepreneurial and psychological journey I undergo and plan in order to become a competent entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurial Profile

I always consider myself as having an entrepreneurial mind. I am not scared to take risks. I have always had the determination and always make sure that I try all my best and get what I want. There have been people around me, who think that I am too ambitious and that most of the times I first act and think later. However, this is not true. I always think something out before taking any action. I read a lot of books on the success stories of different people. These stories inspire me and give me a whopping anticipation of the future. Many people in my class and in other youth groups that I attend consider me born promoter (Baum 1990). I am always optimistic and consider any challenge as a stepping stone to success. I always consider my cup as only a quarter full. I am always ready and even eager to learn new ideas and consult on any new opportunities. I am always in the frontline to encourage my friends. When they think that the world has ended, I take those moments as strengthening. I advice them that terrible things that happened are there to welcome the best that are yet to come. I always consider life as a competition. Therefore, I do not like being average and always seek ways to be the best. I always share what I believe in with people. I do that with great enthusiasm. I make friends easily and maintain most of the friendships. I enjoy making many business contacts.

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I have missed several deadlines, but I always find time to work on them. I believe that time is money. Therefore, I always struggle to keep time and organize my timetable. I consult other people and always try to solve problems, even when they are not meant for me. I have been involved in several debates and arguments and enjoy arguing on any side. Sometimes I may work too hard, but I always make sure that I have a certain limit. I do not push myself too hard, even when I am meant to. I believe in the power of moderation when it comes to undertaking of difficult tasks. I always take my own initiative to solve problems on my own. I am always involved in risk taking tasks and so I enjoy taking risks. Some people often insult me as having no definite stands on issues, but I do not care about that at all. I enjoy criticism. I believe that I was born with one mission in my life: to lead (Morris 2010).

Although I am not an accomplished public speaker or orator, I always try to organize my speech and follow many suggestions on giving speeches. I attend many gatherings with the aim of collecting ideas and making new contacts. I always feel happy about my work, even without appreciation or complements. I have some skills and abilities and always love learning new things. I can play all indoor games competitively, board games, puzzles and a few outdoor games. This goes a long way in sharpening my mind and competing with others to gauge the level of my abilities and skills (Dyer 1992). Sometimes I have negative attitude towards some people or issues, but struggle to change it and find some positivity in them. I always try to come up with new ideas in my club meetings and go a long way in supporting and implementing them. I have always wanted to become a competent entrepreneur. There are some actions that I must undertake to improve my competence in entrepreneurship and in readiness for the future.

Actions to Improve My Entrepreneurial Competences

The first step in improving my entrepreneurial competences is awareness. I must be aware of my abilities, skills and level of knowledge. This is crucial in improvement, since it will enable me to know which areas I am comfortable with and areas that I need to work on. First, I have to write down how competent I am in different levels, as outlined in the profile. The first action in improving my competencies is improving my energy and drive to undertake certain activities. The drive and energy will go long way in making me become more time conscious and meet deadlines. This will also help me by increasing enthusiasm to undertake certain activities. Working with greater vigor will produce satisfactory results. This will also assist me in taking up the initiative of undertaking the tasks that I would have otherwise procrastinated. I also must develop a desire to achieve. This means that I will be struggling each and every day to turn out to be a better person and utilize my brain to the maximum. The need to achieve will also eliminate the desire for power or other relationships that would have thwarted my dreams.

The second and crucial action to improve the entrepreneurial competences would be building up of self-confidence. Self-confidence will enable me to believe in myself and create self-awareness. Self-confidence also helps to have self-esteem (Goldberg 2006). This is a vital step in attaining the objectives that I will set in life. I should craft my future by setting achievable goals and making sure that I initiate proper methods with the aim of achieving these goals. This means that I will have enough confidence to face the future and eliminate the fear of unknown. It will also assist me to gain the confidence to explore new areas without fear of risks. The moderate risk-taker tends to be the biggest profit-maker in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is not gambling, and so, it requires moderation in deciding the risks to take. Unreasonable risks would amount to greater losses. Entrepreneurship requires the calculated risks, and this would allow making of moderate profits, which will increase in the long run. I am also to be able to tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity. This means that I can handle ventures that do not guarantee permanency. I also must develop independence and a sense of individuality. This means that I can be my own boss and manage myself without supervision.

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The other crucial action in improving my entrepreneurship competences would be to change my attitude concerning different global issues. I would do this by conducting different researches on diverse issues globally, other than focusing on one area only. Diversification assists in having a holistic approach to different matters. It will also help me decide on what ventures I can involve myself into. Entrepreneurship demands the long-term involvement in one venture only (Nieuwenhuizen 2008). Diverse study would assist me in determining the most stable venture to undertake in the future. It will also improve my creativity, since I know which areas are already explored and ideas that are being introduced in different areas. The attitude change will also alter my behavior towards different issues. I have always been unable to save for the future. This process will facilitate the elimination of the greed and impatience, which are vital virtues in entrepreneurship. The diversification of knowledge will also help in changing attitude about failure. This will help me to view a failure and accept it as a setback, not as an obvious discouragement. The fear of failure is a leading discouragement for entrepreneurship. If I could overcome this fear, I would have partly succeeded in becoming a competent entrepreneur.

The other crucial action that can improve my entrepreneurial competence is struggling to achieve positive social balance. Success of any entrepreneur comes from social environment. This means that I always must try to go in line with social morals, such as integrity. Honesty, kindness and other social virtues will assist me in embracing the society around and become a reliable person. Every entrepreneur makes profits from sales to the general society. Therefore, I must try and be sociable and understanding to everybody. This will be to an extent that I can listen to their views, not to a point where other people will control me. I should also be determined, persistent and persevering. This means that I would know when to hold on or walk away from different undertakings (Neimeyer 1985). It will also help me to become flexible in order to hold different kinds of people and adapt to different circumstances. I should also learn to identify different talents of people and know how to motivate them to capitalize on those talents. I should also be opportunistic and always look for new opportunities at all times. After following these easy steps, I believe that my competence in entrepreneurship will be improving each day, and I will achieve my set goals.

Personal Development Plan Based on Sound Entrepreneurial Principles

To achieve entrepreneurial competence, I have to come up with a plan to develop my entrepreneurial skills. Entrepreneurship is more of a psychological process, even though it serves economic roles. The plan will be devised to cater for psychological growth to the right standards. For this plan to work, I must observe unusually high level of initiative. This will mean that I am to take my own lead and manage myself, despite the challenges involved. The plan will also require a high level of patience, as psychological development is a gradual process which involves both complex physical and cognitive processes. The process of setting up the development plan in itself is also a crucial entrepreneurial developmental strategy. This is because strategic planning and taking an initiative are some of the main entrepreneurial strategies. This implies, therefore, that by setting up an efficient development plan, one is also going a long way in achieving entrepreneurial competence (Kutzhanova 2007).

The first task in the developmental plan will be gathering of knowledge. Knowledge is the key principle to entrepreneurial perfection. As an entrepreneur, I am supposed to gather diverse knowledge on different issues. This will enable me to determine which opportunities are worthwhile. Gathering of knowledge will also engage my mind to improve my cognitive processes. I will be able to make informed decisions and know, at the same time, what is happening globally. The internet will be the main source of knowledge, since it has easy access and location of diverse data under one server. This task will not only involve reading widely, but also learning to be a professional. The material that I read is supposed to help me pursue my learning, and at the same time, to diversify my knowledge. I must also try to have an open mind and welcome any ideas from other people. I will also consult experts on different issues, which means that I am also supposed to know different people who have expertise in certain areas. In short, the task of gathering information will involve general openness to information and reading of the relevant material. The next task will be involvement in activities that will engage both my physical and mental processes. A particularly tidy example is involvement in sporting activities. These activities will be aimed at team building and improving my physical self (Rye 1997). The body requires physical exercises in order to live a healthy life. The involvement in sporting activities will also include regulation of a diet. The food that I take will determine the development of my body, both physically and mentally. It will also determine the level of manpower one can give. Health is crucial in a person’s life, as it will determine productivity of the person. A competent entrepreneur should be productive and active, able to work for long hours. Sporting activities are the best way to prepare for this. These activities will also increase my competitiveness and increase the desire to win. In sports one loses and wins every now and then. In business ventures the same happens. One can fail in some activities and succeed in the others. Involvement in sports will hence prepare me for these scenarios in the real business world and enable me to handle them without frustrations or excitements.

The other task will be involvement in different group activities and community welfare activities. This will involve joining of groups in school that deal with issues in the society. These groups include clubs and societies, such as debate and Red Cross, respectively. The groups will enable me to handle issues in the society. It will help me listen to the views of others, share my views with them and handle different social problems. A competent entrepreneur is the one who always works with other people and is in clear terms with them. Voluntary societies, such as Red Cross, will assist in readiness for any crisis in life (Kumar 2008). It will also program my mind on how to handle different crises in my life and their consequences. This task will also improve my self-confidence. The sharing of views with different people, such as in debates, will go a long way in improving my self-esteem and assertiveness. It will equip me with the power of persuasion and convincing of others. It will also help in solving and diagnosing different problems in my life.

The final task in the plan will be organization of my ideas, views and setting up of achievable goals. I will set ambitions and goals to achieve in the short-term and long-term goals. This will ensure that I have set a purpose for my life and a definite destination. I will also try to analyze different opportunities by providing detailed information on them. I will do this by trying to start up virtual businesses and managing them, for example, in the internet. This means that when I am ready to venture into any business activity, I will have the ability to analyze and make right decisions. After following this basic developmental plan, I believe that in the end I will have achieved perfection in being a competent entrepreneur (Smilor 1996).

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Exploring the entrepreneurial intention-competency model for nascent entrepreneurs: insights from a developing country context.

• Department of Business Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

Several previous scholars have investigated the relationship between entrepreneurial intention (EI) and entrepreneurial competencies (ECs), yet categorising individual ECs in relation to higher-order competence constructs has not been explored. Based on the previous literature studies, four higher-order constructs are identified, namely cognitive, functional, social/personal and meta-competence. Investigating which ECs are categorised according to the four higher-order constructs in this relationship with EI is important as it contributes to the development and training of these antecedents of entrepreneurial behaviour. Data are collected from 203 nascent entrepreneurs in South Africa and analysed by using structural equation modelling. In this developing country context, only two higher-order constructs, cognitive/functional competence and social/personal competence, fit the data in relationship with EI. The strongest positive relationships were found between the cognitive and functional higher-order construct, opportunity recognition and opportunity assessment, conveying a compelling vision and creative problem-solving. The cognitive and functional higher-order competence construct also showed a strong positive relationship with EI. To improve pedagogical interventions and enhance EI, educators and policymakers can use these findings in entrepreneurship programmes to ensure that this higher-order competence construct with the individual ECs in this category are developed simultaneously rather than individually. Research efforts and support programmes that include cognitive and functional higher-order competence constructs for nascent entrepreneurs should therefore not be neglected. Such efforts and programmes can encourage EI, which in turn can enhance entrepreneurial behaviour, thereby potentially contributes to economic growth and employment creation.

Introduction

Entrepreneurship is widely argued to be critical for alleviating poverty and unemployment. Pendame (2014) stresses that the development of entrepreneurial intention (EI) and the creation of new businesses are of utmost importance for economic advancement. This is even more important in the context of a developing country, for example, South Africa with its alarming high unemployment rate of 29.1% in 2019 ( Trading Economics, 2019 ). Despite the knowledge of its benefits, EI in South Africa has decreased significantly in 2017 relative to 2013 (from 15.4 to 11.7%), which is substantially lower than Africa as a whole, and half of what the efficiency-driven economies achieve ( Herrington and Kew, 2018 ). A possible explanation for this could lie in factors, such as a lack of education, corruption and a restricting regulatory environment ( Urban, 2012 ), which negatively affect the number of intentional entrepreneurs ( Herrington and Kew, 2018 ). As an efficiency-driven economy, South Africa has been identified as one of the least supportive countries constraining entrepreneurship, based on the entrepreneurial framework conditions set out in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, with an average (AVE) rating of 4.0 for 8 out of 12 conditions ( Herrington and Kew, 2018 ). Thompson (2009) advances that EI is most practically defined as a self-acknowledged persuasion by a person to set up a new business venture at some points in the future. Although Santos et al. (2010) state that EI enables the prediction of innovation behaviour, motivation and acting as a guide towards action, a previous work on EI highlighted that the start-up rate of businesses by these individuals is very low while the EI of nascent entrepreneurs may be high ( Nabi et al., 2010 ; Singh et al., 2016 ). The most popular samples that previous studies have measured EI on are student samples (i.e., Boyd and Vozikis, 1994 ; Thompson, 2009 ; Prodan and Drnovsek, 2010 ; Arasti et al., 2012 ). Similarly, these scholars call for research investigating other samples and specifically antecedents that have positive relationships with EI. There is evidence that the self-efficacy and other entrepreneurial competencies (ECs) of nascent entrepreneurs correlate highly with EI, which enhances entrepreneurial behaviour ( Clercq and Arenius, 2006 ; Hsu et al., 2017 ).

One way of understanding the behaviour of nascent entrepreneurs is by studying their EC levels, e.g., their skills, knowledge and attitudes ( Mitchelmore and Rowley, 2010 ). Because competency refers to the skills, knowledge, attitudes and quality of action taken by entrepreneurs, Bird (1995) and Morris et al. (2013) suggest that it is directly related to entrepreneurial action (start-up). ECs also received attention in preceding the entrepreneurship literature and many scholars identified a core set of ECs that are crucial for inclusion when developing entrepreneurs ( Man et al., 2002 ; Clercq and Arenius, 2006 ; Mitchelmore and Rowley, 2010 ; Morris et al., 2013 ; Hsu et al., 2017 ). Therefore, ECs have been identified as an explicit set of competencies relevant to the implementation of successful entrepreneurship, which is often correlated with the intention and action of developing a business ( Bird, 1995 ; Mitchelmore and Rowley, 2010 ). Rasmussen et al. (2011) argue that there is a gap in the literature relating to how competencies are categorised, and which ones are related to different competence categories. Previous scholars have focused on predicting the skills necessary to start a business and have conducted studies on students or pre-entrepreneurs and nascent entrepreneurs ( Zhao et al., 2010 ; Morris et al., 2013 ). We acknowledge the belief of Morris et al. (2013) that the right set of ECs can enhance EI and even more so entrepreneurial action. Scholars such as Baum et al. (2001) , Bird (1995) , Colombo and Grilli (2005) and Mitchelmore and Rowley (2010) have confirmed that different ECs are learnt and necessary at different stages of the venture life cycle. Winterton et al. (2006) categorised competence in four dimensions. Skills are captured by functional competence, knowledge is captured by cognitive competence, attitudes and behaviours are captured by social competence while meta-competence, which is rather different from the first three dimensions, is concerned with facilitating the acquisition of the other substantive competence ( Winterton et al., 2006 :41). In this paper, we adopt this typology by categorising the individual ECs in relation to these higher-order constructs.

Multiple studies have measured EI among students and graduates ( Hayton et al., 2002 ; Turker and Sonmez Selçuk, 2009 ; García-Rodríguez et al., 2015 ), yet there is a lack of research measuring the relationship between EI and ECs, specifically in a developing country context on samples other than students ( Clercq and Arenius, 2006 ; Fatoki, 2010 ; Hsu et al., 2017 ). Previous studies, conducted in developed countries, have modelled EI ( Thompson, 2009 ) and EC ( Mitchelmore and Rowley, 2010 ) as outcomes in separate models. There is evidence suggesting that EI and ECs can be condensed into one model ( Al Mamun et al., 2016 ). The social cognitive theory (SCT), as proposed by Bandura (1986) , provides an underlying framework suggesting that EI and ECs can influence each other, inferring that a bidirectional relationship is possible. This view is supported by Thompson (2009) who suggests that EI can also be treated as an independent variable, indicating that EI can predict certain outcomes. The social ( Coleman, 1988 ) and human capital theories ( Becker, 1993 ) further support the relationship of EI and ECs and the strength of the model fit when examining nascent entrepreneurs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the EI–ECs model from an individual-level approach, and the model is tested to explore whether ECs are related to higher-order constructs [by splitting them into categories as suggested by Winterton et al. (2006) ] in their relationship with EI. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is conducted on 203 nascent entrepreneurs in South Africa, and correlation was used to test the strength of the relationships between EI, the individual ECs and the higher-order competence constructs. An EI–EC model with two higher-order competence constructs, namely cognitive and functional as well as social/personal competence, indicated the most acceptable and parsimonious model fit. Cognitive and functional higher-order competence proved to have a strong positive relationship with EI, whereas social/personal higher-order competence had a negative weak relationship with EI. Therefore, cognitive and functional higher-order constructs with the individual ECs categorised under this construct should be developed simultaneously to enhance the EI levels of nascent entrepreneurs. These findings have implications for theory and practise. Firstly, from a theoretical viewpoint, investigating the relationships between EI and the higher-order competence constructs with individual ECs categorised under each construct, have merits as it has received scant research attention to date. Secondly, the findings in this paper contribute to the body of knowledge, particularly the SCT, theory of planned behaviour (TPB) as well as human and social capital theories, in an entrepreneurial context. From a practical viewpoint, the findings regarding the strength of the relationships may guide policy interventionists and educators to focus on the most impactful higher-order competence constructs such as cognitive and functional and their complex relationship with the individual ECs categorised under this construct and EI. This can augment pedagogical interventions as well as spawn entrepreneurial action for nascent entrepreneurs. In particular, interesting insights into the relationship of EI and the cognitive and functional higher-order competence construct are brought to light, which may be valuable for such interventions. A further contribution of this paper lies in the geographical sphere. Because this research is conducted in South Africa, we answer the call for entrepreneurship research in an African context ( George et al., 2016 ), specifically, for EI research in Africa ( García-Rodríguez et al., 2015 ). This research carries far broader applicability for developed economies while remaining relevant to other developing countries with similar entrepreneurial activity levels. Many developed country research studies (i.e., Boyd and Vozikis, 1994 ; Hayton et al., 2002 ; Thompson, 2009 ; Turker and Sonmez Selçuk, 2009 ; Prodan and Drnovsek, 2010 ; Arasti et al., 2012 ; García-Rodríguez et al., 2015 ) concentrated on student samples, whereas this paper focused on a nascent entrepreneur sample.

The paper commences with a theoretical foundation on the relationship between EI and ECs, more specifically focusing on existing theories to provide a supportive framework. A set of interrelated ECs as well as categorising ECs into higher-order competence constructs are discussed and hypotheses are presented. Afterwards, the methodology, procedure, measures and results are presented, followed by hypothesis testing and discussion of the results, concluding remarks and limitations and recommendations for future research areas.

Theoretical Foundation and Hypotheses Development

Ei research in developed and developing countries.

Research on EI stems from the TPB as proposed by Ajzen (1991) , who states that attitude towards behaviour, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control are the three factors that precede any type of planned behaviour. Bird (1988) and Boyd and Vozikis (1994) advance the theory that intention is a state of mind that centres a person's attention, experience and behaviour towards a specific method of behaving. It is suggested that EI motivates critical strategic thinking and resolutions, and functions as a perceptual monitor for observing relationships, resources and exchanges. It also offers a means to more effectively describe and predict entrepreneurship ( Krueger et al., 2000 ). While EI research is lacking in developing countries ( García-Rodríguez et al., 2015 ), a few literature studies are available with a specific reference to the difference in EI between a developing and developed country ( Iakovleva et al., 2011 ). One study found that Norway (the developed country in this case) had a lower EI among students in comparison to Indonesia. This was attributed to the economic and social status exhibited by Norway ( Kristiansen and Indarti, 2004 ). Yet another study on graduate EI in Malaysia identified that EI is affected by the environment and the support that the potential entrepreneur is likely to receive in the country they operate in ( Trivedi, 2017 ). The environment and support are factors which differ between developed and developing countries. Moreover, only 17% of all start-ups are driven by necessity in developed economies, vs. 32% in developing countries ( Bosma and Levie, 2009 ). Consequently, we acknowledge a distinction between developing countries such as South Africa and Brazil, and developed countries such as Australia and Germany ( World Economic Forum, 2017 ), where the developing countries have much lower EI and entrepreneurial action levels ( Singer et al., 2018 ). However, based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report ( Herrington et al., 2019 ), in contradiction to the World Economic Forum, research results indicate that 22 out of 48 countries identified as developing countries have a much higher EI rate than developed countries, indicating an AVE of 33.8 vs. 15.1, and a TEA AVE rate of 16.9 for developing countries and 9.3 for developed countries. However, based on going from intentions to actual entrepreneurial activity, the gap between developing countries is bigger than that between developed countries. On average, almost half of the entrepreneurs in developing countries with EI do not go over to action. Many factors can play a role such as income levels, ease of doing business, entrepreneurial support, social, cultural, political and economic factors. Based on these conflicting results, more research studies in the field of EI within developing countries are needed.

Previous research and definitions of EI divide the construct into two major areas of importance. The first is intention to start a venture ( Shapero, 1975 ; Ajzen, 1991 ; Boyd and Vozikis, 1994 ; Thompson, 2009 ). The second area is attitude, experience and behaviour ( Boyd and Vozikis, 1994 ), which, in the context of entrepreneurial intentionality, indicates that individuals are inclined to EI based on the personal factors, such as ECs, capabilities, personality traits and personal characteristics. In addition to this, EI can be broken down into two categories, namely an intention to create a new venture or an intention to create a new value within an existing business venture ( Bird, 1988 ). Previous scholars such as Zhao et al. (2010) conducted meta-analytical research, which examined the relationship of personality and EI with two different stages in the entrepreneurial process. In their study, EI was drawn from a sample of nascent entrepreneurs within developed countries ( Zhao et al., 2010 ).

Entrepreneurial Competencies

Entrepreneurial competencies have been defined as the knowledge, skills, abilities, values, attitudes, personality and expertise that lead to entrepreneurial action ( Kiggundu, 2002 ; Morris et al., 2013 ) and success ( Dixon et al., 2005 ). Research on ECs has focused on education and training that enhance these competencies (for e.g., Cheetham and Chivers, 1996 ; Wilson et al., 2004 ; Sánchez, 2011 ; Kaur and Bains, 2013 ; Morris et al., 2013 ), as well as establishing a list of ECs that can lead to entrepreneurial behaviour ( Obschonka et al., 2010 ). In the study by Morris et al. (2013) , pre- and post-measures were employed, of which the findings indicated to a substantial enhancement in the ECs, which confirms that competencies can be learnt. Dermol and RoŽman (2014 ) agree that teaching and supporting ECs are critical as the outcomes can lead to entrepreneurs that are more innovative, creative and can develop and manage ventures. Baron (2008) and Morris et al. (2013) postulate that, although researchers have identified characteristics, values and cognitive approaches related to entrepreneurial success, the competencies that facilitate entrepreneurial action remain elusive. Similarly, the development of these higher-order competence constructs, the progressive role of multiple actors and how their relationships advance in the early stages of venture development are omitted in our understanding of ECs ( Rasmussen et al., 2011 ).

We acknowledge that existing entrepreneurs will view a new venture very differently from someone venturing for the first time, especially with regard to risk taking and making mistakes ( Ucbasaran et al., 2010 ). Hence, as stated previously, ECs should be measured at different stages of the venture lifecycle ( Bird, 1995 ; Baum et al., 2001 ; Colombo and Grilli, 2005 ; Mitchelmore and Rowley, 2010 ). Markman and Baron (2003) suggest that the closer the match between the personal characteristics of an entrepreneur and the requirements of being an entrepreneur, the more successful they will be. For most pre-entrepreneurial ventures, competencies are not freely available but have to be fostered during the early development stages ( Rasmussen et al., 2011 ). In analysing the mediating effect of competence categories such as emotional, social and cognitive competencies, these competencies were found to predict EI within students ( Bonesso et al., 2018 ). By using the three “blocks” of competence categories such as professional competencies, social competencies and personal competencies, the empirical findings suggest that managerial competencies, which include all three categories, are associated with performance in SMEs (Veliu and and Manxhari, 2017 ). Other authors such as Schneider (2017) suggest that ECs can be operationalised by six first-order constructs, including the functional tasks related to managerial skills, entrepreneurial characteristics of self-efficacy and orientations of competition, risk taking and innovation and the founder and innovator identity. Ryan et al. (2009) added to the empirical literature related to the validity and practical utility of emotional, social and cognitive competencies, and found that these categories are most predictive of performance.

A Set of Interrelated ECs

As mentioned earlier, there are many different ECs that are deemed as “crucial” to enhance entrepreneurial action and behaviour. In this paper, we adopt the core ECs as developed and validated by Morris et al. (2013) . These aforementioned ECs are mostly included in the work by entrepreneurial scholars specialising in competency development.

According to the human and social capital theories, individuals obtain resources in specific environments (environmental inputs), such as their demographic, social and cultural surroundings ( Biraglia and Kadile, 2017 :172) and personal networks, which may affect future EIs (behaviour) ( Ucbasaran et al., 2007 ). Human capital theory, measured in the form of work experience, level of education, upbringing by entrepreneurial parents and other life experiences, predicts that individuals who possess higher levels of knowledge, skills and other competencies will achieve higher performance outcomes ( Martin et al., 2013 ). Similarly, entrepreneurs with prior entrepreneurial experience are also more likely to engage in entrepreneurial action learning behaviours and achieve better venture performance ( Chen and Pan, 2019 ). Therefore, the human and social capital theories suggest that specific resources in the form of expertise (i.e., the ECs) are linked to the discovery, evaluation, exploitation and managing of uncertain entrepreneurial opportunities while developing broader social networks that are beneficial to the entrepreneurial process ( Shane and Khurana, 2003 ). The acquisition of specific human capital is expected to result in entrepreneurs being more capable to act on opportunities ( Wiklund and Shepherd, 2008 ) and understand the “true” value of those opportunities ( Davidsson and Honig, 2003 ). Consequently, increased human and social capital (i.e., through the ECs) should enhance an entrepreneur's actual and perceived self-efficacy to exploit opportunities ( Wiklund and Shepherd, 2008 ; Dimov, 2010 ), as well as their attitudes towards exploiting and assessing opportunities that may, in turn, predict EI ( Schlaegel and Koenig, 2014 ; Fayolle et al., 2015 ; Miralles et al., 2016 ). Self-efficacy involves the perceived ability to perform certain behaviours ( Liguori et al., 2017 ) and has been shown to predict EI ( Kolvereid, 1996 ; Bronowitz and Rader, 2008 ; Wakkee et al., 2010 ; Pfeifer et al., 2016 ), as well as moderate the relationship between EI and entrepreneurial action ( Boyd and Vozikis, 1994 ). Through EI, nascent entrepreneurs exhibit higher levels of self-efficacy before they start a business, which results in higher levels of entrepreneurial behaviour for future endeavours ( Hsu, 2011 ; Hsu et al., 2017 ). Entrepreneurial self-efficacy of college students has also been found to have a significant positive effect on EI and their entrepreneurial attitude, which plays a partial intermediary role in this relationship ( Liu et al., 2019 ). Gielnik et al. (2018) found in their study that opportunity recognition could positively and significantly predicted EI. Similarly, EI is seen as the mental force that assesses and realises the value of a new business opportunity ( Cha and Bae, 2010 ). With no intention, opportunities cannot be assessed and without the ability to assess opportunities , EI and opportunity are unlikely to be realised ( Morrison et al., 2003 ).

As explained above, this interrelatedness of ECs is also likely the case for other ECs such as opportunity recognition and assessment as both involve the perception of the opportunity ( McMullen and Shepherd, 2006 ). Opportunity assessment and recognition only differs with respect to the level of involvement required in the assessment of an opportunity and the locus of assessment (i.e., the assessment of a first-person opportunity as opposed to a third-person opportunity) ( McMullen and Shepherd, 2006 ; Schlaegel and Koenig, 2014 ). It is, therefore, contended that individual ECs covary between one another. ECs may bring forth reputational value for entrepreneurs, which can aid in entrepreneurial action ( Gielnik et al., 2018 ) by relying on this reputation to convey their vision in a more compelling way. This should enhance the actual and perceived self-efficacy of an entrepreneur to exploit opportunities ( Dimov, 2010 ) and, in turn, more strongly predict EI ( Schlaegel and Koenig, 2014 ; Miralles et al., 2016 ). A recent study by Biraglia and Kadile (2017) found a strong positive relationship between self-assessed creativity and EI, which was mediated through entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Hu et al. (2018) found further evidence for the argument that entrepreneurial alertness has a fully mediation effect on the relationship between creativity, proactive personality and EI. Because domain-relevant knowledge acquired through prior experience is a highly relevant component of creativity ( Amabile, 1983 ; Baer, 2012 ), entrepreneurs should be able to draw on this prior entrepreneurial experience in the form of domain-specific knowledge that can enhance creativity levels and, consequently, EI ( Biraglia and Kadile, 2017 ). Morris et al. (2013) describe value creation as the “capabilities of developing new products, services and/or business models that generate revenues exceeding their costs and produce sufficient user benefits to bring about a fair return.” Scholars such as Gorman et al. (1997) , Feldman and Bolino (2000) and Sternberg (2004) have suggested that innovative individuals are motivated to become self-employed. Because innovation involves the implementation of creative ideas or solutions ( Perry-Smith and Mannucci, 2017 ), entrepreneurs will be better able to act on this innovative intentionality ( Wiklund and Shepherd, 2008 ), leading to stronger predictive power of EI. Building and maintaining diverse social networks plays an essential role in developing EI among entrepreneurs ( Kefela, 2011 ; Zafar et al., 2012 ). Entrepreneurs through several environmental inputs are thus expected to have broad social networks and improved effectiveness in developing network ties ( Mosey and Wright, 2007 ). Similarly, nascent entrepreneurs have likely accumulated more social capital ( Ucbasaran et al., 2007 ), which is a salient factor in developing EI among entrepreneurs ( Zafar et al., 2012 ).

From the discussion above, it is evident that ECs are interactional constructs, meaning they are dependent on, and interact with, individual personalities, the environment and behaviour as defined by the situational environment ( Mitchelmore and Rowley, 2010 :95). Accordingly, the ECs are expected to interact and covary with one another, as recently supported in the study by RezaeiZadeh et al. (2017) . For e.g., ECs related to creative problem solving appear to significantly enhance other ECs such as networking and leadership ( RezaeiZadeh et al., 2017 ). Therefore, we adopt the view in this paper that ECs can more effectively be developed and learnt by nascent entrepreneurs if these ECs are categorised in higher-order competence constructs, which are discussed in the next subsection.

Categorising ECs Into Higher-Order Competence Constructs

As indicated in A Set of interrelated ECs section, many scholars found that competencies can be categorised and project a better outcome than competencies that are developed in isolation ( Lado et al., 1992 ; Eden and Ackermann, 2000 ; Harmsen et al., 2000 ; Patterson et al., 2002 ). In many cases, a specific combination of competencies or categorising competencies into higher-order constructs are known to achieve a greater success ( Harmsen et al., 2000 ). Patterson et al. (2002) found that a set of six self-directed learning competencies are not mutually exclusive but are interrelated in such a way that by using all or a combination of them simultaneously directs and controls students' learning. Scholars such as Eden and Ackermann (2000) and Lado et al. (1992) use the term “distinctive competencies.” Distinctive competencies is defined by Eden and Ackermann (2000) as “those particular strengths within an organisation that are very difficult to emulate,” and are the features of an organisation that underpin long-term success. Distinctive competence is often the combination of a particular pattern of interrelated competencies, where it is the pattern that is distinctive ( Eden and Ackermann, 2000 ). In their research, Lado et al. (1992) examine sustainable competitive advantage linking the four components of a firm's “distinctive competencies” (managerial competencies and strategic focus, resource-, transformation- and output-based competencies) that are synergistically related. The results by Harmsen et al. (2000) support a nonfunctional and broad perspective of how bundles of competencies interact and impact on the success and establish a positive overall contribution to product development. About 10 competencies (areas of importance) were identified for achieving company objectives. On account of investigating the competencies needed by individual engineers, competencies are understood to be interrelated rather than separate within the Definition and Selection of Competencies (DeSeCo) framework ( Male et al., 2011 ). In the field of entrepreneurship, it has been found that EI influences the attitude, skills and behaviour of pre-entrepreneurs and nascent entrepreneurs ( Fayolle et al., 2015 ; Hsu et al., 2017 ). Similarly, existing entrepreneurs, should however, have some or most of the ECs as they have already proceeded through several stages of the business life cycle. However, this is not the case for nascent entrepreneurs, and a combination of ECs need to be developed.

Winterton et al. (2006) developed a typology for categorising ECs. We adopt this approach by grouping ECs in the study of Morris et al. (2013) into four categories. A unified typology of competence, knowledge and skills that are necessary for particular occupations, as developed by Winterton et al. (2006) is illustrated in Figure 1 . Skills are captured by functional competence, knowledge is captured by cognitive competence, attitudes and behaviours are captured by social competence while meta-competence, which is rather different from the first three dimensions, is concerned with facilitating the acquisition of the other substantive competence ( Winterton et al., 2006 :41). Fayolle et al. (2015) tested the relationship between EI and cognitive and behavioural competencies, not necessarily focusing on individual ECs, and found strong relationships between EI and cognitive and behavioural competencies.

Figure 1 . A unified typology of competencies. Source : Adapted from Winterton et al. (2006) .

Furthermore, Cheetham and Chivers (1996) also developed and tested meta-competencies, as illustrated in Figure 2 , and divided it into four categories very similar to these of Winterton et al. (2006) .

Figure 2 . The categorisation of meta-competencies. Source : Adapted from Cheetham and Chivers ( 1996 :27).

For the purpose of this paper, we therefore adopt the four categories by Winterton et al. (2006) and Cheetham and Chivers (1996) , namely (1) cognitive competencies; (2) social/personal competencies; (3) functional competencies and (4) meta-competencies. These authors define each of these higher-order categories as follows:

• Cognitive competence refers to underpinning theory and concepts as well as informal tacit knowledge gained experientially; knowledge, the “know that” is underpinned by understanding, the “know why.”

• Functional competence refers to skills or know-how and things that a person should be able to do and to demonstrate.

• Social/personal competence refers to behavioural competencies or knowing how to behave; some behaviours and attitudes related to EC are having a positive attitude towards change and showing initiative.

• Meta-competence refers to as a comprehensive concept of the multidimensional construction of competence; it further refers to the element that facilitates the acquisition of the other competencies.

Based on the definitions and discussion in A Set of interrelated ECs section surrounding each individual EC as presented by Morris et al. (2013) , the ECs in this paper are categorised and presented in Table 1 .

Table 1 . Grouping entrepreneurial competencies (ECs) into higher-order competence categories.

The EI-Competency Relationship for Nascent Entrepreneurs

In turn, TPB implies that intentions are determined by attitudes, and attitudes are affected by “exogenous effects” such as competencies, traits and situational variables ( Krueger, 1993 ). Some scholars such as Hazlina Ahmad et al. (2010) argue that personality is condensed in ECs and we therefore acknowledge that personality traits are embedded in ECs. Furthermore, there is a discrepancy in the literature relating to the different personality traits and ECs and they are often used interchangeably. Hmieleski and Corbett (2006) argue that personality, cognition, motivation and improvisation are the good predictors of EI. A few scholars such as Obschonka et al. (2010) observe that: “Entrepreneurship research to date has rarely addressed early antecedents of entrepreneurial activities, such as early ECs. As expected, entrepreneurial personality, early ECs and intention were associated.” SCT provides a useful model ( Bandura, 1986 ) for understanding human action and its consequences ( Hmieleski and Baron, 2009 ). In the formulation of SCT, Bandura proposes that learning, motivational and behavioural actions are the outcomes of a complementary interaction between the three distinct aspects, namely (1) environmental input; (2) personal factors and (3) behavioural outcomes ( Bandura, 1989 , 2006 ; Biraglia and Kadile, 2017 ). Personal factors include physiological features, suppositions, perceptions, affect and cognitive capabilities ( Biraglia and Kadile, 2017 ). Therefore, the view is supported that higher-order constructs, such as cognitive and personal (social) competencies, are related to EI. Based on the preceding literature review, an overarching theoretical framework is provided in Figure 3 and will be tested in the analyses.

Figure 3 . The entrepreneurial intention- (EI-) competency higher-order category model.

As depicted in Figure 3 , the higher-order competency constructs are presented as cognitive, social/personal and functional competence. Each of the individual ECs that are related to each of the higher-order competency constructs is illustrated. From this discussion and Figure 2 , as meta-competence is associated with facilitating the acquisition of the other substantive competence, we do not view the individual ECs that are specifically categorised under the construct of meta-competence. Therefore, the hypothesised statements are introduced for the cognitive, social/personal and functional competences only:

H1 : Cognitive competence, consisting of conveying a compelling vision; creative problem solving; opportunity recognition and opportunity assessment, is positively related to EI for nascent entrepreneurs.

H2 : Social/personal competence, consisting of building and using networks; self-efficacy and tenacity/perseverance, is positively related to EI for nascent entrepreneurs.

H3 : Functional competence, consisting of value creation through innovation, is positively related to EI for nascent entrepreneurs.

Method and Sample

To address the research hypotheses, a quantitative research approach was followed, employing a structured research questionnaire (survey). The study used a nonprobability sampling procedure, specifically judgemental/purposive sampling. With purposive sampling, the sample is arbitrary and subjectively selected ( Cooper and Schindler, 2011 ) to fulfil a purpose of providing answers to the study's research questions and objectives. The target population was nascent entrepreneurs. South African organisations, such as the University of Pretoria (tertiary institution), National Youth Development Agency (governmental organisation) and the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller (nongovernmental organisation), were used to source the contact details of nascent entrepreneurs. The survey was emailed to approximately 1,450 respondents, and 330 hard copies were distributed. The final realised sample was 203, which represented a low response rate of 8.8%. Although the sample was selected arbitrary, the sample elements were selected based on their adherence to the determinants mentioned in the next section.

Categorising Nascent Entrepreneurs

The operational definition of nascent entrepreneurs in the GEM report ( Herrington et al., 2019 ) was taken into consideration as it defines nascent entrepreneurs as those individuals who are in the process of setting up a business ( Herrington et al., 2019 ). They are therefore individuals who are identified as taking steps to start a new business through a perceived opportunity or by a personal aspiration but who had not yet succeeded in making the transition to new business ownership ( Lichtenstein et al., 2007 ). Scholars interested in nascent entrepreneurs tend to focus their attention not on a single act of opportunity exploitation, but more on the series of actions in new venture emergence ( Delmar and Shane, 2004 ; Lichtenstein et al., 2007 ; Kim et al., 2015 ). For example, nascent entrepreneurs often look for and purchase facilities and equipment, seek and obtain funding, organise teams and dedicate their time and energy to their business ( Carter et al., 1996 ). For the purpose of this paper, an individual was regarded a nascent entrepreneur if s/he had “initiated at least one gestation activity for a current, an independent start-up by the time of the measurement.” Gestation activities refer to actively commencing the process of establishing a business ( Davidsson and Honig, 2003 ) including having prepared a business plan; developed an idea; recognised an opportunity; developed a new product or service; tested the product or service on customers; conducted market research; applied for a patent or trademark; applied for financial assistance; started with marketing activities; saved money to start a business; undergone any entrepreneurial education or training with the goal of starting a business and gathered other resources to start a business.

The 10-item Individual Entrepreneurial Intention Scale (IEIS), developed by Thompson (2009) , was used in this paper to measure EI for nascent entrepreneurs. The ordinal scale used was from 1 (very untrue) to 4 (very true). In Thompson's study, the scale's Cronbach's alpha coefficient of internal consistency proved to be 0.89 for 450 randomly selected convenience respondents; 0.84 for 160 student respondents and 0.86 for an international sample of 947. Hence, the scale seemed to have acceptable internal consistency. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to determine whether the data fit this EI scale.

To identify the relevant EC scale, Morris et al. (2013) implemented a multi-round Delphi technique to generate an essential list of 13 core ECs. The survey was adapted in terms of language and the number of items per EC to fit within the developing country context, therefore an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was considered and not a CFA. EFA was employed for each of the competencies, using principal axis factoring extraction and promax rotation, to determine the unidimensionality of each of the constructs. Convergent validity was confirmed by means of composite reliability (CR) for the constructs in the study under The validity and reliability of the scales Section and presented in Table 2 .

Table 2 . Composite reliability (CR) scores.

The Likert-type response scale used was from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) and an AVE of six items was measured per EC. In the study by Morris et al. (2013) , the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was tested individually for each of the ECs and varied between 0.62 as the lowest and 0.97 as the highest. Therefore, the EC scale also seemed to have acceptable internal consistency. Both the EI as well as the EC scales were administered in English.

The use of different scales (very untrue to very true) for EI and the five-point agreement scale for the ECs, as well as the reversed score items in the instruments, alleviate potential common method bias.

Data Analysis

In order to assess normality, individual item statistics revealed that all items, except items 86–88 and 93 had skewness and the kurtosis values between −2 and +2, therefore confirming the assumption of univariate normality ( George and Mallery, 2010 ) for these items. For items 86–88, the skewness value was within the range of −2 to +2 with the kurtosis values of 2.79, 3.97 and 2.54, respectively. Ryu (2011) found that skewness = 2 and kurtosis = 7 appeared to be the level of violation of multivariate normality at which the influence of the violation became severe when conducting SEM. Only item 93 had values above 2 and 7. However, as it was only an item that violates this assumption, ML estimation used in SEM was deemed appropriate.

Correlations between the individual variables were employed to determine the strength and direction of the individual relationships and to detect multicollinearity. Model estimation and specification used SEM to conduct structural analysis and these analyses were performed by using SPSS (version 24) and AMOS (version 24). The structural analysis determine whether a relationship existed between the latent variables and robust SEs were estimated by means of bootstrapping (refer to Table 5 for bootstrapping of the parameters).

The Validity and Reliability of the Scales

Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted and indicated a non-acceptable fit for EI [root mean square error approximation (RMSEA) = 0.096; incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.750, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.744 and minimum discrepancy per degree of freedom = 4,172]. A possible reason why CFA indicated a non-acceptable fit was due to a wide range of perception ratings of the items by the respondents (the mean values range between 2.5 and 3.68 with SDs ranging between 0.585 and 0.977), therefore EFA is undertaken to determine the potential subdimensions of EI.

Subsequently, EFA was conducted to determine the factor structure for both EI and each of the ECs. Cronbach alpha coefficients of more than 0.70 are typically regarded as acceptable ( Nunnally, 1978 ) when using existing instruments. However, 0.6 is regarded acceptable in exploratory research ( Bagozzi and Yi, 1988 ; Hair et al., 2010 ). In a study by Farrington et al. (2012) , low Cronbach alpha values of between 0.50 and 0.60 were considered sufficient and useful to the study, which measured entrepreneurial attributes in three different countries, including South Africa ( Antonites and Nonyane-Mathebula, 2012 ).

As the Cronbach alpha value is known to be influenced by the number of items in a scale and is a lower bound estimate of reliability, reliability was also assessed through the CR score in Table 2 . These values ranged between 0.614 and 0.869, and consider acceptable as they were all more than 0.6 ( Hair et al., 2010 ). The AVE variance extracted should be higher than the minimum threshold of 0.5. However, according to Fornell and Larcker (1981) , even if AVE is less than 0.5, but CR is higher than 0.6, the convergent validity of the construct is still adequate, therefore all the constructs in the study are deemed acceptable for analysis in the SEM.

Factor Analysis: ECs

As EFA was conducted per EC scale, unidimensionality was indicated for 10 of the 12 ECs; and 2 of them, value creation, and building and using networks, resulted in two sub-factors each. The reliability analysis conducted on the constructs retained for further analysis is displayed in Table 3 . A total of four factors were eliminated as they failed to contribute to a simple factor structure and satisfy the minimum criteria of a primary factor loading of 0.4 or above, and/or no cross-loading exceeding 0.3. These factors and their Cronbach's values were risk management/mitigation (0.34), resource leveraging (0.44), maintain focus yet adapt (0.46) and resilience (0.41). No substantial increases in alpha for any of the scales could have been achieved by eliminating more items. Based on the analysis, 10 competencies (i.e., distinct factors) were indicated as internally consistent, resulting in 8 factors and 4 sub-factors being included for further testing. These factors, the Cronbach's alpha values, and composite scores for each factor are calculated by using the means and SD of the variables included in each factor and are presented in Table 3 .

Table 3 . Descriptive statistics and correlations between the composite scores.

According to Kline (2011) , the minimum sample sizes for both precision and power varied widely across the different models and extent of missing data. Minimum sample sizes for factor analysis models normally ranges from 30 to 460 cases, depending on the number of factors (1–3), the number of indicators per factor (3–8), the AVE correlation between indicators and factors (0.50–0.80), the magnitude of factor correlations (0.30–0.50) and the extent of missing data (2–20% per indicator).

Correlations

The Pearson's correlation coefficient was employed to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between each pair of ECs. Table 3 shows that the relationship between all ECs was positive, except for the relationships between self-efficacy and each of the other ECs. The values ranged between 0.124 (weak correlation) and 0.668 (between value creation through innovation (sub-factor: observing customer usage and creative problem-solving). These correlation levels indicated strong evidence of no multicollinearity and discriminant validity between the set of ECs.

The total sample consisted of 203 nascent entrepreneurs of which 33% were women and 67% were men. The AVE age was 30 with the youngest respondent aged 18 and the oldest aged 71 years. Of the respondents, 47.8% had completed a secondary school level education, with 17.7% having obtained a tertiary qualification (University or Technikon degree). The majority of the nascent entrepreneur respondents indicated that they are going to operate their businesses in the services, agriculture and manufacturing industries.

Hypothesis Testing

Structural equation modelling was conducted to test the three hypotheses that are graphically illustrated in Figure 3 . The relationship between EI and each higher-order category (cognitive competence in H1; social/personal competence in H2 and functional competence in H3) with their representation of the individual ECs is tested. This model indicated an almost acceptable model fit with the following goodness-of-fit measures (CFI−0.844; IFI−0.847; TLI−0.826 and RMSEA−0.069). For the goodness-of-fit measures, CFI, IFI, TLI values above 0.9 and RMSEA values between 0.08 and 0.05 indicate a reasonably well-fitting model while a RMSEA value below 0.03 represents excellent fit ( Hooper et al., 2008 ). However, due to multicollinearity between the cognitive and functional category (0.921), the decision was taken to combine the cognitive and functional higher-order competency constructs. Therefore, the combined cognitive and functional as well as social/personal competence resulted in two higher-order competence constructs that were tested with their individual ECs in relation to EI. The new model representation is illustrated in Figure 4 .

Figure 4 . Model representation of the tested EI-competency higher-order category model.

From Table 4 , it is evident that this model had CFI (0.900) and IFI (0.902) values above 0.9 with a TLI (0.886) value very close to 0.9. Overall, the other goodness-of-fit measures indicated a reasonably well-fitting model (RMSEA, 0.056).

Table 4 . Measures of the model fit of the structural equation modelling (SEM) for the cognitive and functional as well as the social/personal categories (nascent sample).

Because this SEM model with the combined cognitive and functional higher-order competence constructs provided an acceptable model fit, the strength of the relationships (correlations) between the variables and the associated significance levels for this model was analysed, as shown in Table 5 . Strength thresholds (0–0.2 = weak; 0.2–0.4 = mild/modest; 0.4–0.6 = moderate; 0.6–0.8 = moderately strong and 0.8–1.0 = strong) are used in accordance with Pallant (2001) . Opportunity recognition (0.922); opportunity assessment (0.909); conveying a compelling vision (0.828) and creative problem-solving (0.946) have a positively strong relationship with the cognitive and functional higher-order competence. Both the value creation ECs (0.735 and 0.780, respectively) have a positively moderately strong relationship with the cognitive and functional higher-order competence. Perseverance (0.253) and self-efficacy (−0.361) have a modest relationship with social/personal higher-order competence. However, this relationship is negative for self-efficacy and social/personal competence. Both the building and using networks ECs (0.831 and 0.963, respectively) have a positively strong relationship with the social/personal higher-order competence. When testing the strength of the relationships between EI and the cognitive and functional higher-order competence, a positively strong relationship was found. On the other hand, a negatively weak relationship was found between EI and the social/personal higher-order competence. A significant positive relationship is evident between all of the variables except between perseverance and social/personal competence and EI and social/personal competence. The positive relationships are in agreement with previous scholars ( Kolvereid, 1996 ; Bronowitz and Rader, 2008 ; Wakkee et al., 2010 ; Pfeifer et al., 2016 ) who found a positively strong relationship between most of the ECs in the cognitive and functional competence category and EI. Furthermore, as indicated, robust SEs were estimated by means of bootstrapping (refer to Table 5 ) and all of the bootstrapped SE seem to be consistent.

Table 5 . Bootstrapped standardised regression weights and SE.

Discussion of the Findings

The EI–EC relationship was tested in a SEM model on a sample of nascent entrepreneurs to explore the higher-order competence constructs and their individual ECs in relation to EI. Based on the literature review, Figure 3 graphically illustrated the four higher-order competence constructs and the individual ECs that are categorised under each higher-order construct. However, this model did not provide an acceptable model fit and due to multicollinearity between the cognitive and functional category (0.921), SEM was rerun by combining the cognitive and functional higher-order constructs whereby an acceptable model fit was found. In the SCT framework, ECs are seen as personal factors ( Biraglia and Kadile, 2017 ) rather than a part of behaviour. Competencies are only observable if actual actions are taken by individuals in particular situations. Individual capacities or dispositions, external demands or dispositions and contexts are all part of the complex nature of competencies ( OECDE, 2005 ). This finding aligns with, and furthers the understanding of, the findings of RezaeiZadeh et al. (2017) that ECs are interdependent and can be categorised together. Hence, support is found for the suggestions by Mitchelmore and Rowley (2010) that ECs are interactional constructs that are dependent on, and interact with, the personality (including the other ECs) of an individual and can be categorised into higher-order constructs. We find support for the first and third hypotheses, H1: cognitive competence, consisting of conveying a compelling vision; creative problem-solving; opportunity recognition and opportunity assessment, is related to EI for nascent entrepreneurs. H3: functional competence, consisting of value creation through innovation, is related to EI for nascent entrepreneurs, is combined with cognitive competence in our SEM model. Hence, we can confirm our assumption in the literature review where TPB implies that intentions are determined by attitudes, and attitudes are affected by competencies ( Krueger, 1993 ), we can confirm that higher-order competence constructs with individual ECs categorised under the cognitive and functional constructs can predict EI.

There is no evidence supporting the second hypothesis (H2) stating that social/personal competence, consisting of building and using networks; self-efficacy and tenacity/perseverance, is related to EI for nascent entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest that EI has a negative and weak relationship with the social/personal higher-order construct, and perseverance and self-efficacy cannot be categorised in the higher-order competence construct of social/personal competence. This might be due to the fact that self-efficacy should perhaps be investigated as a higher-order competence construct on its own as the previous literature studies indicated such a strong relationship with EI ( Kolvereid, 1996 ; Bronowitz and Rader, 2008 ; Wakkee et al., 2010 ; Pfeifer et al., 2016 ).

We also tested the strength and direction of these relationships for the acceptable model. The strongest positive relationships were observed between EI and cognitive and functional higher-order competence, specifically creative problem-solving, conveying a compelling vision, opportunity recognition and opportunity assessment with this higher-order construct. Our findings agree with previous scholars that EI is closely linked to opportunity recognition, opportunity assessment ( Shaver and Scott, 1991 ; Krueger et al., 2000 ) and value creation ( Gorman et al., 1997 ; Feldman and Bolino, 2000 ; Sternberg, 2004 ). The weakest relationship is observed between EI and the social/personal higher-order competence, specifically self-efficacy indicated a negative relationship with social/personal competence. The literature on self-efficacy indicated a positive relationship with EI ( Kolvereid, 1996 ; Bronowitz and Rader, 2008 ; Wakkee et al., 2010 ; Pfeifer et al., 2016 ), and specifically nascent entrepreneurs exhibit higher levels of self-efficacy before they start a business, which results in higher levels of entrepreneurial behaviour for future endeavours ( Hsu, 2011 ; Hsu et al., 2017 ). However, in this paper we cannot confirm this when self-efficacy is categorised into a higher-order competence construct of social/personal competence. Future models could test self-efficacy as a higher-order construct with certain individual ECs such as opportunity recognition ( Wiklund and Shepherd, 2008 ; Dimov, 2010 ), as well as opportunity assessment ( Schlaegel and Koenig, 2014 ; Fayolle et al., 2015 ; Miralles et al., 2016 ) categorised under self-efficacy as these ECs have strong relationships with self-efficacy. We acknowledge that higher-order constructs in EC research requires further testing and investigation to explore possible best practise models for teaching these ECs.

As emphasised in the literature, individuals with high levels of EI does not necessarily start businesses or engage in entrepreneurial behaviour. The missing link between EI and action could be the lack of having adequate ECs. There has been little in-depth research on ECs and their complex relationship with EI (i.e., Boyd and Vozikis, 1994 ; Hayton et al., 2002 ; Thompson, 2009 ; Turker and Sonmez Selçuk, 2009 ; Prodan and Drnovsek, 2010 ; Arasti et al., 2012 ; García-Rodríguez et al.,2015 ). We used several theories as an underlying framework to explore the EI–EC relationship. The SCT ( Bandura, 1986 ) provides a supporting model suggesting a relationship between EI and higher-order constructs under which individual ECs could be categorised. Winterton et al. (2006) and Cheetham and Chivers (1996) introduced four higher-order categories namely: (1) cognitive competencies; (2) social/personal competencies; (3) functional competencies and (4) meta-competencies. However, the relationship of these four higher-order competence constructs with EI could not be supported in this paper. Specifically, model fit was evident when cognitive and functional competence are combined into one higher-order construct. This combined higher-order competence construct and social/personal competence were included in the SEM model testing the relationship with EI. Therefore, we advance theory regarding the relationships between EI and ECs and the higher-order categories for ECs ( Mitchelmore and Rowley, 2010 ). As there is a lack of research measuring the relationship between EI and ECs, specifically in a developing country context on samples other than students, this paper fills that gap. The SCT ( Bandura, 1986 ), social ( Coleman, 1988 ) and human capital theories ( Becker, 1993 ) support the relationship between EI and ECs and also the strength of the model fit when examining nascent entrepreneurs.

We found support in the literature for findings that EI has a positively strong relationship with the cognitive and functional higher-order construct and specifically for opportunity assessment ( Morrison et al., 2003 ); conveying a compelling vision ( Cha and Bae, 2010 ); creative problem-solving ( McMullen and Shepherd, 2006 ) and opportunity recognition ( Gielnik et al., 2018 ). Consequently, entrepreneurship education programmes and educators should be aware that the necessary ECs within the cognitive and functional higher-order construct should be developed and trained simultaneously to enhance EI if we want to encourage more nascent entrepreneurs to make the leap towards owning a business venture. Previous literature studies indicate that self-efficacy is a strong positive predictor of EI ( Kolvereid, 1996 ; Bronowitz and Rader, 2008 ; Wakkee et al., 2010 ; Pfeifer et al., 2016 ). However, when tested as a second-order construct under the social/personal higher-order competence construct, a positive relationship with EI could not be confirmed. By deconstructing this relationship, we recommend that future EI–EC relationships should test self-efficacy as a higher-order competence construct to ensure that nascent entrepreneurs has the best possible “entrepreneurial training package” to enhance the outcome of entrepreneurial behaviour. We further recommend that individual ECs should be developed in conjunction with the higher-order competence construct, specifically the cognitive and functional competence, rather than individually, to increase EI.

The contributions of this paper are three-fold. First, from a theoretical viewpoint, exploring the relationships between EI and higher-order competence constructs have merits as it has received scant research attention to date. We contribute to the SCT, TPB, human and social capital theories by applying the theories in an entrepreneurial context and confirming that there is a relationship between behavioural (EI) and personal (ECs) as well as other higher-order competence constructs. We also contribute to the EI literature by testing and confirming the acceptable model fit in relationship with two higher-order competence constructs. Secondly, from a practical viewpoint, the findings may guide policy interventionists to focus on the right set of ECs and the development thereof in relation to the higher-order constructs identified. These two higher-order constructs, the individual ECs under each and their intricate relationship with EI, provide promising avenues for enhancing entrepreneurial action and development, especially for the cognitive and functional higher-order competence construct. A third contribution of this paper lies in the geographical sphere. Because this research has been conducted in South Africa, we have answered the call for entrepreneurship research from an African perspective ( George et al., 2016 ). The fresh insights into EI and its relationship with competencies have been garnered from a research context distinct from where the constructs themselves originated ( Zoogah et al., 2015 ; George et al., 2016 ). Established scholars in entrepreneurship research, with a reference to intention and competencies, have explored these constructs in a developed economy context ( Thompson, 2009 ; Morris et al., 2013 ), with little scientific evidence from developing economies ( Urban, 2013 ). The value of this study stems from both exploring this relationship in a developing country context as well as on a nascent sample, which has received scant research attention, as most previous studies investigated student samples in their EI research. This benefits the reviewing of the existing theory within a novel research context. This research is applicable to other developing countries with similar entrepreneurial activity levels while maintaining far broader applicability regarding theory development. Educators could take note of the cognitive and functional higher-order competence construct with the individual ECs and include them in entrepreneurship programmes to enhance the action taken by nascent entrepreneurs. In particular, educators should take note of the fact that individual ECs must be developed in conjunction with other ECs that are categorised together. For example, cognitive and functional competence, opportunity recognition; opportunity assessment; conveying a compelling vision; creative problem-solving and value creation should be developed and trained together.

Limitations and Future Research

No study is without limitations. Firstly, although scholars call for more entrepreneurship research from Africa, our research tests the EI–EC relationships in one particular setting, namely South Africa. Testing these higher-order competence constructs and EI relationships in other contexts and, for example, comparing the results to developed countries could contribute to the generalisability of results. It would be interesting to investigate whether all four higher-order competence constructs with their individual ECs and the relationship with EI would provide an acceptable model fit in a developed country context. Secondly, we acknowledge that different individual ECs might be categorised under each higher-order competence construct and the EI–EC model might be presented differently by other scholars in the field. We call on future research to investigate these higher-order categories and to explore which individual ECs are categorised under each, this should be tested in divergent settings and contexts. Thirdly, we acknowledge that there are a number of other scales dealing with EI and ECs. Future research could expand these findings, by using other scales and other ECs not included in this paper and comparing the results with those of this paper. Fourth, we have tested only the relationship between intention and competencies rather than the relationship with entrepreneurial action. A longitudinal study on this relationship could test entrepreneurs at different stages of the venture life cycle to indeed investigate when entrepreneurial action occurred and/or was enhanced. Finally, future research could include additional variables to investigate the influence of moderators in the relationship between EI and ECs, for example, demographic variables such as age and gender, or other personal factors such as physical characteristics and prior entrepreneurial experience. In this regard, it may be valuable to investigate self-efficacy as a mediator and/or moderator in the relationship between EI and ECs as scholars have suggested that ECs should enhance an entrepreneur's actual and perceived self-efficacy. It is further suggested that self-efficacy is tested in an EI–EC model as higher-order competence constructs with individual ECs such as opportunity recognition and assessment categorised under self-efficacy as the previous literature studies suggest that these constructs are positively related ( Schlaegel and Koenig, 2014 ; Fayolle et al., 2015 ; Miralles et al., 2016 ).

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by The Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Ethics Committee, University of Pretoria. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

This article was prepared by two authors MB and AT. MB conceptualised the paper and prepared the literature review and findings. AT collected the data and also contributed to the final preparation of this article. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: entrepreneurial competencies, entrepreneurial intention, developing country context, higher order competence constructs, cognitive and functional competence

Citation: Botha M and Taljaard A (2021) Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intention-Competency Model for Nascent Entrepreneurs: Insights From a Developing Country Context. Front. Psychol. 12:516120. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.516120

Received: 17 March 2020; Accepted: 23 June 2021; Published: 28 July 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Botha and Taljaard. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Melodi Botha, melodi.botha@up.ac.za

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Developing entrepreneurial competencies through deliberate practice

Education + Training

ISSN : 0040-0912

Article publication date: 21 July 2022

Issue publication date: 9 August 2023

In the context of the question of how entrepreneurship education can contribute to entrepreneurial competency development, this paper aims to outline the deliberate practice (DP) method and showcase how it can be applied in entrepreneurship education. To this end, this paper presents a learning innovation in which DP improves entrepreneurial competencies.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper describes an entrepreneurship training in which participants, over a seven-week period, learn about DP and use this approach to develop an aspect of an entrepreneurial competency of their choosing.

Evaluations show that participants find both short- and long-term gains in their competency development, and value having learnt a competency development method as well.

Practical implications

The presented format is designed in accordance with the DP principles as originally described in the literature on expert performance, and shows that DP can be applied in the context of entrepreneurial competency development at lower levels of proficiency. Entrepreneurship educators interested in competency development can consider to adopt (aspects of) the described approach.

Originality/value

The format applies DP principles as described in the literature on expert performance. The value lies in the short- and long term effects of the training.

• Entrepreneurship
• Competencies

Deliberate practice

• Enterprising
• Entrepreneurial
• Entrepreneurship education

Van Gelderen, M. (2023), "Developing entrepreneurial competencies through deliberate practice", Education + Training , Vol. 65 No. 4, pp. 530-547. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-10-2021-0396

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Marco Van Gelderen

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

Entrepreneurship has become an established and legitimate teaching subject ( Gabrielsson et al. , 2020 ; Hägg and Kurczewska, 2022 ; Nabi et al. , 2017 ). Entrepreneurship education (courses, training and programmes) is available across educational settings, from secondary schools to vocational training to higher education to MBA programs. Overviews of entrepreneurship education’s pedagogical methods reveal that many educators focus on experiential formats ( Fayolle et al. , 2019 ; Hägg and Gabrielsson, 2019 ; Hägg and Kurczewska, 2022 ; Nabi et al. , 2017 ). Furthermore, a sizeable percentage of those experiential formats focusses on developing entrepreneurial competencies ( Lackéus, 2015 ; Nabi et al. , 2017 ; Lilleväli and Täks, 2017 ). As such, there is a need for entrepreneurship educators to be aware of theories and methods concerning competency development. Theories and methods that have proven their value in other fields and domains are of particular interest.

Competencies are not fixed traits, they can be developed and learnt through experience and training ( Kyndt and Baert, 2015 ; Man et al. , 2002 ). Contemporary theories of competency development posit that while effortful, intentional and conscious practice help to acquire a certain level of competency, once a satisfactory level of performance has been reached, actions become automatic and are processed without conscious control ( Keith et al. , 2016 ). Therefore, a key issue in competency development is that at points of routinisation, merely adding experience in the form of repeating the same activity does not lead to increased levels of performance ( Dew et al. , 2018 ; Unger et al. , 2009 ). A sizeable body of research on top experts in a wide variety of domains has aimed to explain how such individuals overcome their performance plateaus to become and remain leaders in their fields. This body of research concludes that so-called “deliberate practice” is suitable for overcoming the stagnating effects of automaticity ( Ericsson, 2006 ; Ericsson et al. , 2007 ).

In the context of the broader research question of how entrepreneurship education can contribute to entrepreneurial competency development, this paper aims to outline the deliberate practice (DP) method and showcase how it can be applied in entrepreneurship education. To this end, this paper presents a learning innovation in which entrepreneurial competencies are developed through DP. Although DP originates from studies of top expert performance, it can be applied at any level of competency development ( Ericsson and Pool, 2016 ). The presented format is designed in accordance with the DP principles as originally defined, and shows that DP can be applied in the context of entrepreneurial competency development, refuting the claim sometimes made in the entrepreneurship literature that DP as used in “classical” domains, such as sports and music, would not be possible in entrepreneurship ( Baron and Henry, 2010 ; Unger et al. , 2009 ; Keith et al. , 2016 ).

DP entails a comprehensive set of principles that will be outlined first. Next, its relevance is discussed in the context of entrepreneurship education and training. The next section reviews conceptual discussions and empirical applications of DP in the entrepreneurship research literature. Then, a format will be presented as used in a course for university master’s students provided yearly between 2015 and 2020. The next section provides evidence for the effectiveness of the format. Finally, the discussion presents implications, limitations and research opportunities.

Research on experts in various domains shows that many top performers develop their competencies through a particular training method: DP ( Ericsson, 2006 ; Ericsson et al. , 1993 ). The basic principles established by research on DP and expert performance apply to a remarkably wide range of domains, and DP has been found to explain exceptional performance in fields such as musical performances ( Ericsson et al. , 1993 ), sports ( Hodges et al. , 2006 ), chess ( Charness et al. , 2005 ), artistic performance ( Noice and Noice, 2006 ), creative writing ( Kellogg, 2006 ), insurance sales ( Sonnentag and Kleine, 2000 ), software design ( Sonnentag et al. , 2006 ) and medicine and surgery ( Norman et al. , 2006 ). DP is primarily a way of overcoming performance plateaus (“arrested development”, Ericsson, 2006 , p. 696) caused by the automatisation and routinisation of behaviour arising once a certain satisfactory level has been reached. I now outline the elements which make up DP ( Ericsson, 2020 ; Baron and Henri, 2010 ).

Firstly, DP is specifically designed to improve performance by identifying and practising performance levels that are currently just out of reach. For many activities, individuals can achieve a reasonable level of proficiency (initial levels often within 50 h). A key challenge for those who wish to develop further is to avoid the arrested development associated with automaticity. DP helps individuals break out of these automatic patterns by identifying, usually under the guidance of a coach or trainer, behaviours representing the next level of proficiency. These identified behaviours lie slightly outside of the individual’s current behavioural repertoire. Therefore, in DP, one never practices routinely. It is about acquiring a new proficiency level, which requires conscious control and attention.

Secondly, with DP, rather than practising several aspects simultaneously, the focus is on a single, separately actionable behaviour that participants can perform by themselves. A third characteristic is that this action is then practised repeatedly. For example, Lionel Messi practices a particular free-kick many times after group training, or a violinist repeatedly plays a small part of a composition in an improved manner. Thus, in DP one attempts to do one thing very well rather than practising several things at once. Fourthly, as the examples of Messi and the violinist indicate, DP usually runs separately from actual performance. In a football game, Messi does not take hundreds of free kicks from the same spot, and in a concert, a violinist does not play the same small part hundreds of times. Fifthly, DP makes extensive use of feedback. Different measurements (such as video recordings, use of observers, subjective ratings and time measurements) are used to track progress against the learning goal. Based on the feedback, a training participant may make small adjustments to their practice. As such, reflection plays an important role in DP. Participants continue to reflect on their practice, ensuring the practice focuses on behaviour just outside the habitual zone, though inside the learning zone. Reflection also helps participants improve their mental model of the practiced behaviour.

The sixth and final attribute of DP is that it is hard to engage in. DP cannot be practised mindlessly; it requires awareness and focus. It aims at expanding and improving a behavioural repertoire and avoids reinforcing existing behavioural patterns. The individual is continuously doing something in a manner they have not yet fully mastered. Because of its intensity and the required focus and concentration, DP is exhausting and can only be sustained for a few hours at a time.

Given that DP emerged from studies on top experts, a question to address is whether DP can help lift the competency levels of non-experts; in other words, at lower levels of performance. Ericsson states that it does. “While the principles of deliberate practice were discovered by studying expert performers, the principles themselves can be used by anyone who wants to improve at anything, even if just a little bit” ( Ericsson and Pool, 2016 , p. 16). The main reason is that the underlying situation is similar. Performance plateaus occur at any level of competency development. DP provides a systematic method to “unfreeze” the current behavioural repertoire and replace it with behaviours associated with the next level of proficiency.

Engaging in DP may result in substantive rewards, advancing skills and knowledge related to the practised competency. Furthermore, engaging in DP for a substantive period has been found to have wider cognitive benefits as it enhances perception, memory and meta-cognition ( Baron and Henry, 2010 ; Ericsson and Pool, 2016 ). Although the group around Ericsson, as well as other scholars (e.g. Charness et al. , 2005 ; Hodges et al. , 2006 ; Kellogg, 2006 ; Sonnentag and Kleine, 2000 ; Unger et al. , 2009 ), found positive effects of DP on performance, some authors have been critical of DP’s stated effects. Specifically, some have challenged the claim that DP is not just a necessary condition but even a sufficient condition to become a top expert performer ( Campitelli and Gobet, 2011 ; Hambrick et al. , 2014 ). Even on logical grounds, such a claim indeed seems overstated. If all experts practised DP, it would cease to predict top expert performance.

More generally, a group of scholars around Hambrick and Macnamara concluded that, in addition to DP, a wide range of distal factors explain top expert performance, including genetic, opportunity, ability and personality factors, and a range of proximal task and situational factors ( Hambrick et al. , 2014 , 2016 ). Again, purely on logical grounds, it seems inevitable that other characteristics play a role as DP, given its demanding nature, requires antecedent attributes and significant motivation. The Ericsson and Hambrick/Macnamara camps continue to debate the extent and uniqueness of the effects of DP ( Ericsson, 2020 ; Macnamara and Hambrick, 2021 ). Nevertheless, they agree that “deliberate practice as it has been operationally defined and measured in research over the past two decades by Ericsson and colleagues and by others who have used their research as a model, explains a sizeable amount of the variance in expertise” ( Hambrick et al. , 2016 , p. 14). When using DP in a training or in the classroom, it is important to be aware of these debates, and provide participants with an accurate understanding of the extent to which engaging in DP may contribute to competency development.

Competency development in entrepreneurship education

A significant percentage of entrepreneurship education aims to promote entrepreneurial skills and competencies ( Lackéus, 2015 ; Nabi et al. , 2017 ; Lilleväli and Täks, 2017 ). Competencies are defined as the combined and integrated components of knowledge, skills and attitudes ( Kyndt and Baert, 2015 ; Lilleväli and Täks, 2017 ; Van Gelderen, 2020 ). Although the terms competencies and skills are sometimes used interchangeably, the definition of competency makes explicit that competency-based education not only concerns the behavioural component (the skill) but also the knowledge involved and the attitude by which actions are taken. According to Lilleväli and Täks (2017) , competence models and competence-based education have become widely spread throughout different fields of education. DP ties in nicely with several features of competency development in entrepreneurship education.

Firstly, DP can be applied at any level of competency development ( Ericsson and Pool, 2016 ). Within entrepreneurship, holistic competence models such as the EntreComp ( Bacigalupo et al. , 2016 ), have been developed depicting a gradual development of competence throughout education levels and against qualification standards ( Lilleväli and Täks, 2017 ). As such, entrepreneurial competencies can be promoted at foundational, intermediate, advanced and expert levels. DP is a method to overcome performance plateaus arising at any level. At lower levels, no professional coach is needed. In the format described in the next section, academic and non-academic sources can provide guidance, and so do student peer coaches. Moreover, while 10.000 h of practice may be needed to become an expert ( Ericsson, 2006 ), at lower levels reaching a next level of proficiency can be achieved in far fewer hours ( Ericsson and Pool, 2016 ).

Secondly, various authors ( Lans et al. , 2018 ; Lilleväli and Täks, 2017 ; Van Gelderen, 2020 ) have noted that there is no consensus on a definite set of entrepreneurial competencies. Various lists exist, some based on desk research or armchair reasoning (e.g. Kyndt and Baert, 2015 ; Man et al. , 2002 ; Mitchelmore and Rowley, 2010 ), others based on the inputs of experts, such as practising entrepreneurs, business developers, or university professors ( Chandler and Jansen, 1992 ; Morris et al. , 2013 ). However, no consensus is necessary for DP’s application; each educator can help develop any competency of choice as long as the practice is structured in line with the DP principles outlined in the previous section.

Thirdly, authors providing overviews of entrepreneurship education routinely explain the distinction between narrow and broad views of entrepreneurship ( Gabrielsson et al. , 2020 ; Gibb, 1993 ; Hägg and Gabrielsson, 2019 ; Lackéus, 2015 ; Lilleväli and Täks, 2017 ). In a narrow sense, entrepreneurship education concerns the processes of starting and running a business and is focused on starting a new venture. In a broad sense, new venture creation is just one manifestation of “acting on opportunities and ideas and transforming them into financial, cultural, and/or social value for others,” as defined in the EntreComp ( Bacigalupo et al. , 2016 , p. 10). Applied to entrepreneurial competencies development, the broad approach focuses on generic, transversal competencies, such as creativity, teamwork and persuasion, sometimes designated as enterprising competencies ( Bridge, 2017 ; Dinning, 2019 ; Gibb, 1993 ; Lackéus, 2015 ; Onstenk, 2003 ). Again, DP can be applied regardless of whether an educator favours the broad or narrow approach; whether broad or narrow, competencies can be developed by practice structured alongside DP principles.

Fourthly, authors have observed that in addition to debating “what” competencies should be developed, there is also the question of “how” to do this ( Lans et al. , 2018 ; Lilleväli and Täks, 2017 ). Lans et al. (2018) propose that this requires student-centred learning environments with five core design principles: (1) active student participation, (2) the teacher as facilitator and coach of the learning process, (3) cooperative work or team-based work, (4) real-life, authentic assignments and (5) opportunities for self-regulated learning for students. DP can comply with all these features, as the format described later in this paper will illustrate.

Entrepreneurship education needs effective methods to develop entrepreneurial competencies. The suitability of DP has been observed in entrepreneurship literature, yet at the same time, the uptake of DP has been limited, as the next section will outline.

Deliberate practice in the current entrepreneurship literature

The entrepreneurship literature has taken notice of the relevance of performance plateaus and DP as a method to overcome them ( Baron and Henry, 2010 ; Dew et al. , 2018 ; Keith et al. , 2016 ; Unger et al. , 2009 ). For example, Baron and Henry (2010 , p. 51) state that “Across many different activities, most individuals show relatively rapid increments in performance up to levels they and others view as acceptable. This is then followed by a plateau and no further gains. As a result, most individuals remain at a particular level of competence for years or even decades despite growing experience as measured by time of active involvement in a particular domain.” DP is identified as a method to overcome such performance plateaus. Keith et al. (2016 , p. 519) state that “deliberate practice activities specifically designed to address performance deficiencies and aimed at altering the use of suboptimal techniques are suitable to overcome these “detrimental effects of automaticity” ( Ericsson, 2006 , p. 696).”

Although the entrepreneurship literature conceptually embraced the importance and relevance of DP, the empirical literature relating DP to entrepreneurship went off on an alternative track. According to Unger et al. (2009) and Keith et al. (2016) , DP as used in “classical” domains, such as sports and music, would not be possible in entrepreneurship. They reasoned that entrepreneurs engage in a wide variety of behaviours, have little repetition in their tasks, have limited feedback available, operate in dynamic and uncertain environments and are often too busy to practice DP. Instead, their empirical work sought to single out entrepreneurial practices and redefined DP as the degree to which entrepreneurs engaged in these practices to improve their competencies ( Keith et al. , 2016 ; Unger et al. , 2009 ). Examples include holding firm meetings, engaging in private conversations and professional reading. The extent to which entrepreneurs engaged in such activities for competency improvement was then related to venture success with weak and mixed results.

Unfortunately, as a representation of DP, this approach falls short. Firstly, engaging in activities such as holding meetings and doing professional reading with the aim of competency development may result in informal learning ( Keith et al. , 2016 ), but has little to do with the comprehensive set of practices constituting DP (that is, a deliberately designed activity, aimed at mastering behaviours that are not yet in the behavioural repertoire, which is practised with a high degree of repetition and uses a range of feedback indicators and minor adjustments). Using a proxy measure disconnects from the theoretical and empirical work that originated DP and generated evidence for its practical relevance. Secondly, this literature relates the engagement in these practices to venture-level outcomes, whereas DP’s aim is more proximal, namely to increase proficiency in the activity itself. It is the way one holds meetings, does professional reading, etc. that DP would aim to change and improve. The studies mentioned above do not investigate the effects of DP on the proficiency level of the practices themselves.

The learning innovation presented in this paper counteracts the idea that DP, as originally conceived, does not apply to entrepreneurs. Although many entrepreneurs are busy, they may be able to commit to 30 or 60 min per day to DP if they prioritise competency development. In particular, this applies to entrepreneurship education students, who have prioritised their development as entrepreneurs by the very act of enrolling in training or study. Entrepreneurship as a practice may be ill-structured and lack repetition, feedback, or coaches. However, for any behavioural aspect of a given competency that an entrepreneur or entrepreneurship education student wishes to improve, a learning task can be designed in line with the features of DP in “classical” domains. For example, if an entrepreneur wants to become more effective at delivering pitches by speaking at a slower pace, a learning task could be designed in which he/she sets apart a designated amount of time each day to engage in this behaviour, using various feedback channels and making minor adjustments based on that feedback until the new behaviour (speaking slower) has become habitual.

The next section details a seven-week procedure in which DP, as originally conceived, is applied to a wide variety of entrepreneurial behaviours.

Description of the format

Introduction to entrepreneurial competencies, and DP and its six principles (Day 1)

Have students identify an aspect of an entrepreneurial competency they like to work on (Day 2–7; extra days or weeks can be assigned depending on the exercises involved)

Regarding the competencies featured in the course, lectures on these competencies are given based on the overviews provided on my website [name withheld]. In addition, I use a pre-assignment that uses an experiential learning format challenging students to practice enterprising competencies and helping them reflect on their behaviour and identify points for improvement. However, engaging in such a pre-assignment is optional; it is also possible to have students identify a point for improvement based on their life- and work experience.

Students can be required to choose an activity they practice in a social setting. If the activity is visible to others (including the coach), it promotes the identification of behaviours outside the current behavioural repertoire and creates additional pressure to engage in the activity. An activity does not need to be inherently social (e.g. engaging in a creative practice); if so, then the results can be shared (e.g. sharing the creative ideas the activity generated).

Design a learning task in daily life in which the behaviour can be repeatedly practised and for which feedback can be obtained (Day 7)

The lecturer splits the class into small groups (“communities of learning”) of 7–10 students. Within each small group, each student gets to share the topic they want to work on, as well as any initial ideas for a learning task. With every student individually choosing what to work on, each learning task is designed uniquely, though always complying with DP principles. Together with the student and the rest of the group, the lecturer co-designs the learning task. These tasks are designed so that they make use of daily life situations. There is no financial cost to students, and engagement in DP is not hampered by resource constraints, as advocated by Ericsson et al. (1993) .

In the case of the student who wished to become more expressive in her facial expression, the created learning task was that she would stand at the entrance of a shopping mall for about 30 min, twice every workday over two weeks, greeting shoppers who enter (“Welcome!”) or exit (“Goodbye!”) the mall while working on her expressiveness. Often, students can use their specific circumstances, so it is good to enquire about their living conditions and daily activities. For example, a student who wanted to become more curious (seeing it as relevant to generating ideas for opportunities to create value for other people) living in a student house with 30 fellow students can attempt to find out something new about each of them in every encounter. But for a student who lives alone, this is not feasible.

Various types of feedback are identified and collected. In the case of the greeting task, feedback might be the level of internal discomfort, time to action (between the planned time to start the practice and the actual time of starting), feelings of facial stiffness and responses from the public. See Table 1 for more examples of types of feedback. Typically, the feedback concerns the behaviour, not the behaviour’s effect . For example, in Table 1 example 5 (initiating contact), the task is to initiate a conversation based on an observation (“That’s a beautiful bag”; “Nice weather”). How the other person responds is not relevant to the practice unless it is part of the task. For example, in Table 1 example 4 (reducing maladaptive perfectionism), it is helpful to note the response of others to, for example, errors in emails or WhatsApp messages (usually there is no response).

A peer coach also provides feedback. The session in which the learning tasks are designed, is also used to assign peer coaches. Each student coaches another student, and is coached by yet another. In the example of the facial expressiveness practice, the coach dropped by at the mall at the beginning and end of the practice period to rate the degree of facial expressiveness. Coaches also help to further co-design the task, think through possible modifications to the practice based on feedback and play a motivational role.

Have students conceptually pursue their topic in a report (report 1), using both academic and non-academic sources (Writing days 8–18, Grading days 18–22). Based on the conceptual investigation, possible modifications are made to the learning task. Conduct trials of the learning task.

Practice the learning task for 10 consecutive working days, approximately 60–90 min each day (Days 23–37). Keep track of actions, feedback and modifications in a log.

Each student practices their learning task for 10 working days. The number of trials varies considerably depending on the task, but the time spent per day should be around 60–90 min. For example, the student greeting visitors to the mall could perhaps greet 100 or 200 people, whereas someone initiating contact with people who are psychologically distant (see Table 1 , Example 6) may just have a few trials each day. However, the latter task requires more preparation, singling out appropriate events and travelling there. Participants keep track of actions, feedback and modifications in a log (typically in Excel). Each attempt (or group of attempts, as in the case of the greeter) is on a new row, with day, time, activity, duration, location, outcome, feedback type 1, feedback type 2, feedback type 3, feedback type 4, adjustments and comments as columns. With each learning task uniquely designed by and for each student, there is no one-size-fits-all description of the procedure of obtaining feedback. However, the objective is the same: to collect explicit, formally registered feedback. The feedback is used to track progress and can indicate a need to make adjustments to the practice task.

Typically, the new behaviour feels awkward at first; it represents a new pattern outside the participant’s current behavioural repertoire. However, by repeatedly engaging in the new behaviour, it often becomes less scary and less difficult. For example, for most people, after repeated appearances, public speaking becomes less difficult over time, reducing the typical negative physical, emotional and cognitive responses (sometimes they disappear entirely). As an example, the student seeking to diversify her network ( Table 1 , Example 6) may discover that seemingly different people are not so different after all. If the new behaviour becomes comfortable within the two-week practice period, the student can adjust the difficulty of their actions. During the practice period, participants meet with their coach a few times. The role of the coach is to help and encourage, and to be an additional source of feedback. The coach (and, if necessary, the lecturer) can help to ensure that the learning task remains optimal.

Write a report (Report 2) on the practice and its conceptual underpinnings; include a plan for further development (Day 38–42)

In the final assignment, students report their DP of the aspect of the entrepreneurial competency that they focus on. They describe their practice, the process they went through and the effects they noted in terms of the various forms of feedback. They further reflect on the literature they discussed in their conceptual investigation. Did it help them, and what factors did the literature overlook? The format includes reflection before, during and after the experience (steps 2–4; 5; and 6, respectively), as advocated by Hägg and Kurczewska (2016) and Pepin (2012) . Reflection is inherently associated with DP as it involves the careful and conscious use of feedback to improve the actual practice and the mental model associated with it.

Progress will vary as some behavioural aspects can be improved considerably over two weeks, whereas others may take more time. Therefore, participants also write about the future: whether and how they plan to continue the practice after the course is over and the course credits have been received. Additionally, they write 100–125 words about how they contributed to the competency development of the fellow student for whom the student served as a coach or mentor. Furthermore, they write 100–125 words about how their coach helped them. See Appendix for a marking schedule for Report 2. Grading is based on the depth of effort, the depth of reflection, and on the effort made as a coach, not on absolute or relative levels of competency improvement.

Format effectiveness

The training described in the previous section has been provided each year for six years as an elective for Master of Business Studies students and involved 162 participants in total. Table 2 shows the evaluation scores from the official university evaluations held at the end of the course. These evaluations are held in a period of three weeks after classes for the course have ceased. Participating students receive an electronic link to a survey which they can fill out anonymously. Administration of the university evaluation system is done by general university staff members who have no ties to the lecturer or the course. The statements in Table 2 come directly from the survey.

The response rate is 70 out of 162. In 2020 the evaluations were somewhat lower, possible because the course needed to be adapted at the last minute to suit a lockdown situation due to COVID-19. This reduced options to design and work on learning tasks and reduced social interaction to online formats.

In addition to using the data generated by the formal university evaluation system, I reached out to the students who took part in the years 2015–2019 to assess any longer-term effects. I could only approach students who had provided a private or work email address (at the time of participating, students could choose their preferred email address for the course, and university email addresses become defunct after graduation). The survey was filled out by 23 of the 112 former students that could be invited. The four items in Table 3 reflect Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation: reaction, learning, behaviour and results ( Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick, 2006 ). See the items in Table 3 for their operationalisation. The official university evaluation, being held straight after the course finishes, only generates evidence on the first two types (whether participants liked a course or program and learnt from it). The follow up survey, held years after the course has been completed, allowed for asking whether the course changed the participants’ behaviour and whether this brought positive results for the participants. Respondents indeed saw long-term changes in their behaviour, affecting long-term positive results. It is well possible that students who found the course more effective were more likely to respond to the survey.

Both the official university evaluation and the follow-up survey also asked for qualitative feedback, reported in Table 4 . The students’ input was coded by means of the thematic analysis procedures as outlined by Guest et al. (2012) and Braun and Clarke (2006) . Thematic analysis is a qualitative technique for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) in data that does not involve counting phrases or words as is done in content analysis. In the first step, comments are given first order codes that are literally drawn from the text and do not involve an interpretation or evaluation. Then, the first-order codes are grouped together at a higher level of abstraction based on similarities in content, and this process is repeated until a limited number of higher-order codes emerge, which can then be labelled as themes. The themes that emerged from the data are long term impact, relevance and ownership ( Table 4 ).

The results shows that the participants appreciate improving the behaviour of their choice, as well as mastering a competency development method. The first three statements are from the follow-up survey; the rest are from the university evaluation taken immediately after the course. Several students reported breakthroughs replacing previous behavioural routines with new ones. Although DP focuses on a narrow aspect of behaviour, participants regularly report beneficial effects generalising from the narrow task. Students also report that they appreciated the small learning community (the class is divided into groups of 7–10 students) and that they felt free to show their vulnerabilities.

Although motivation tends to be high, with the course being an elective and students choosing their own point of improvement, engaging in DP is still hard. It requires full awareness and focus to practice new behaviours. Not all participants will succeed each day in achieving their practice goals. It is important for the instructor and the coach to continue motivating students to engage in practice and assure participants that is inherent in the method that practice may not always be as perfect or frequent as intended.

The course can be personally difficult as students are invited to practice behaviours they currently do not master, and they often choose to address issues that have been bothering them for quite some time. It can be scary to admit a weakness (most students work on a weakness, rather than bolster a strength) and practice a new and unfamiliar behaviour. As the last quote in Table 4 indicates, it is important to create a respectful, supportive atmosphere in the small workgroups/learning communities.

Some students do not know what to practice. Even if a pre-assignment is given to help students identify points for improvement and if they see other students in their learning community settle on topics/goals and learning tasks, a few cannot think of any point for improvement. The instructor can then turn to a meta-level and propose making the lack of self-awareness a point for improvement.

Some students have difficulty focussing on a single behaviour and continue to design plans in which they practice the competency involved in a broad sense. However, in DP one focuses on a single repeatable behaviour. Even if several attempts to focus do not help, the instructor can turn to a meta-level and propose to make the inability to focus the point for improvement.

Some students keep changing their topic and/or the learning task. If even several attempts to have the student stick to a plan do not help, the lecturer can turn to a meta-level and propose making the inability to stick with a course of action the point for improvement. FOBO (fear of better options) and FOMO (fear of missing out) problems, common amongst millennials, often underlie this issue.

It is important from the outset to manage expectations by explaining that this format concerns individual-level competency development and that students will not start their own business. A few students seem stuck in their belief that entrepreneurship courses are invariably about starting a business. This may particularly apply to students majoring in subjects other than entrepreneurship. The message to be conveyed is that entrepreneurial competencies eventually contribute to successfully starting and running a venture.

As my course is scheduled in the spring, many students were concurrently working on their thesis and/or finding a job after graduation. Some are keen to turn something they would be doing for their thesis or job search into the topic for DP, such as recruiting research participants or securing job interviews. While it is laudable for students to identify activities that are useful for them, my experience is that it is more effective if the practice is clearly set apart. One element of DP is focus, a second is practising a single aspect of behaviour, a third is that practice runs separately from performance. All are easier to achieve if a student specifically sets time apart to master the new behavioural repertoire, rather than mixing it with immediate study or work concerns.

Although students tend to make progress with their chosen aspect of improvement, in many cases, two weeks of practice is merely a beginning, and the new desired behaviour has not yet become routinised. Often students would benefit from continuing their practice after the course has finished. It is important to encourage students to do so.

Overall, the learning innovation presented in this contributes to the entrepreneurial competency development literature in multiple ways. Firstly, it highlights a method for competency development which has proven its value in other fields and domains. Several entrepreneurial competency models have been developed ( Lilleväli and Täks, 2017 ) – but developing these models does not in and by themselves develop competencies. Entrepreneurship education needs a variety of methodologies to develop entrepreneurial competencies, and DP can be one of them.

Secondly, amongst these methodologies DP offers an opportunity for deep learning as the format requires respondents to focus both conceptually and in their practice on a single aspect of behaviour for an extended period. As such, the format goes beyond interventions of a single lecture or experiential exercise. DP purposefully aims to expand the novel behavioural repertoire rather than reinforce existing behavioural patterns by merely adding experience. It contributes to the entrepreneurship education literature by providing an example of an application of a method explicitly designed to overcome performance plateaus.

Thirdly, the application of DP connects to a broad and established research base. As Baron and Henry (2010 , p. 63) state, “It is important to reiterate that the basic principles established by research on deliberate practice and expert performance apply to a remarkably wide range of fields and domains, ranging from sports and music to chess, science, and creative writing. Thus, there are empirical grounds for proposing that they are also applicable to the domain of entrepreneurship.” The presented format is designed in accordance with the DP principles as originally defined, and shows that DP can be applied in the context of entrepreneurial competency development. This refutes the claim made in the entrepreneurship literature that DP as used in “classical” domains, such as sports and music, would not be possible in entrepreneurship ( Unger et al. , 2009 ; Keith et al. , 2016 ).

Fourthly, DP ties in well with some features of entrepreneurship education as outlined earlier in the “Competency Development in Entrepreneurship Education” section. DP can be applied at any proficiency level, making it suitable for application in a variety of educational contexts. DP can be applied regardless of a narrow or broad definition of entrepreneurship, with the latter having the advantage that entrepreneurial competencies can be trained of individuals who may not necessarily be interested in starting their own venture. And the application of DP does not a require a consensus amongst scholars on a set of entrepreneurial competencies; entrepreneurship educators can apply DP to any competency they and/or their students find relevant.

In terms of practical applicability, the paper has described a particular format in detail. This provides interested entrepreneurship educators with an example, which may prove useful when designing their own application of DP. Apart from participants being motivated to improve their level of proficiency, and apart from that the application of the method takes time, there are no entry barriers to engaging in DP. With learning tasks situated in daily life situations, there is no financial cost. As the practice is tied to the current competency level of the participant, it can be designed at any level. Participants can practice DP whether they intend to start a business or desire to be more entrepreneurial in a broader sense. Although the format described in this paper concerns an application to university students, there is no a priori reason why it could not work at other levels of education, including the secondary school level.

The provided evidence for effectiveness for the presented format has certain strengths. Firstly, it presents both quantitative (ratings) and qualitative (comments) evidence. Secondly, it relies on multiple sources: comments and ratings provided anonymously through the university evaluation system and comments and quantitative ratings from participants obtained years after the completion of the course through a follow-up survey. Thirdly, it covers all levels of evaluation as outlined by Kirkpatrick: reaction, learning, behaviour and results. Fourthly, the format has been tried out in practice for six years. Nevertheless, the provided evidence has limitations. An experimental design with pre-/post-test measurements, a control group and longitudinal follow up of outcomes would have provided stronger evidence for the format’s effectiveness. This represents a future research opportunity. Future research may also establish specific issues to be considered when applying DP to educational contexts other than that of a university master course.

The learning innovation presented in this submission provides an example of how DP, as described in the DP literature, can be applied to the training of entrepreneurial competencies. DP is not for the faint-hearted. It requires a lot of focus and concentration to practice behaviours that are currently out of reach and go against previously learnt patterns. However, if successful, participants not only develop a competency aspect, they master a competency development methodology.

Evaluation scores from the official university evaluation system

Evaluation scores from the follow-up survey ( N  = 23)

Qualitative evaluative statements

Marking schedule for conceptual investigation assignment (Report 1)

Marking schedule for the practice assignment (Report 2)

See Tables A1 and A2 .

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About the author.

Marco Van Gelderen is a psychologist specialising in enterprising behaviour. Marco focuses his research as well as his teaching activities on individual level enterprising competencies. Examples of such competencies are generating ideas for opportunities, taking action, perseverance, networking, teamwork, and persuasion. For research overviews of these competencies, see the website that Marco maintains: www.enterprisingcompetencies.com . He has developed several formats to study as well as practice these competencies, and conducts workshops and (short) courses in various countries and settings. Marco is currently editor of the learning innovation section of the Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy journal. Furthermore he is an editorial board member of the Journal of Business Venturing and of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice .

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Designing an entrepreneurial concept is a fulfilling concept that results in an idea generation. Through technological advancements, there have been increased recreational techniques such as video games among others. Hence, bringing some more educative recreational features to the video games would be a significant contribution through modernized technology. Not only would games be recreational facilities but educative items for the kids.  Through the games, there could be tests in between the sets to ensure a player passes the tests before proceeding to the next level after successful level completion. Although the tests could be less complicated and minimal, they would contribute a lot in developing the children intelligence. Therefore, what I would like to do is come up with a video game that has tested such as mathematical, English, historical or science related questions depending on the game that the players would have to complete before proceeding to the various levels of the game.

With a great passion for the change, I would be able to introduce the idea in the market thus conveying what I want to do. While engaging with game players passionately, I would convince them to adopt the new game and try out its trend. Trough the move requires bravery to have a follower for the new product effectively, I would ensure flexibility of the idea to ensure everyone is okay with the different forms thus making them desire to try out the game. As technological advancements have made it easier for people to access various items remotely, retaining the integrity of high level would be a way to ensure honesty and truthfulness of the idea. Therefore, while wanting to execute the plan, what I would also do is have originality and consistency.

For an idea to be successful, there are different skills that one need to comprehend and fulfill in the line of duty. Discipline is a vital character that plays a significant role in eliminating hinderances and promoting successful ventures. Through training, I will be able to have consistency in supply as well as in technological advancements for the products. Through discipline, one can have a trail of their innovations thus able to trace threats and risks to their ideas (Klimczuk, 2017). Achieving set goals and objectives is facilitated through discipline on the established standards and expectations. Strategies and tactics stipulated for achieving set objectives should be followed step by step towards the targets.

Trust for an organizer is a skill that is essential in making their ideas succeed in the making. Confidence makes one not to question their ideas success or failure, but instead, they believe in their knowledge. They always exude their faith in whatever they partake. According to Matt (2017), openminded situations are key in enforcing trust to the entrepreneurs. Therefore, I will exercise my openminded skills in the process to ensure efficiency and potentials of the idea implementation.

Additionally, this is a way towards commitment in duties. Giving much time and attention to the idea makes it more likely to succeed due to increased understanding of its nature. With creativity, an entrepreneur can have diverging opinions over their ideas thus trying them to make their plans work. Therefore, there need to be creative aspects in creating the project succeed.

Klimczuk, A. (2017). Organizational Forms and Management for the Building of Creative Capital of Older People. In  Economic Foundations for Creative Ageing Policy, Volume II (pp. 207-250). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Matt. (2017, April 6). 10 Qualities of a Successful Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://under30ceo.com/10-qualities-of-a-successful-entrepreneur/