Acessing Individual and Team Entrepreneurial Potential

Although it is broadly accepted that the quality of the entrepreneur and/or entrepreneurial team is one of the most decisive predictors of new venture success, it remains unknown what are the most important skills or competencies that an entrepreneur and/or entrepreneurial team should possess and foster. Inspired by the current calls for more entrepreneurial ventures, this project aims to identify the main individual and team level competencies that are necessary for entrepreneurial success. More specifically, we aim to develop a set of scientifically validated measurement instruments to assess these very same competencies in order to facilitate recruitment processes, training designs, and talent management. We opted to focus on entrepreneurial capabilities not only to respond to society’s needs but because this is a research avenue in dear need of theoretical frameworks and tools to explain individual- and group-level performance. Because entrepreneurial ventures are thought and implemented by entrepreneurial individuals that are enmeshed in entrepreneurial teams, our project is comprehensively designed in the sense that it includes both individual and team level assessment tools. These instruments will be developed from a set of different indicators (quantitative and qualitative, self-reported and observed) to ensure triangulation and boost the predictive validity of the proposed tools. The development of instruments to reliably assess entrepreneurial competencies will open doors for a more accurate prediction and a decreased bias regarding the relation between individual / team capabilities and venture success. The robust design and methodology for data collection and analysis will allow us to infer causal relations between these very same capabilities and corporate outcomes, which has strong implications for practice and a real potential for scientific publications.

Although it is broadly accepted that the quality of the entrepreneur and/or entrepreneurial team is one of the most decisive predictors of new venture success, it remains unknown what are the most important skills or competencies that an entrepreneur and/or entrepreneurial team should possess and foster. Inspired by the current calls for more entrepreneurial ventures, this project aims to identify the main individual and team level competencies that are necessary for entrepreneurial success. More specifically, we aim to develop a set of scientifically validated measurement instruments to assess these very same competencies in order to facilitate recruitment processes, training designs, and talent management. We opted to focus on entrepreneurial capabilities not only to respond to society’s needs but because this is a research avenue in dear need of theoretical frameworks and tools to explain individual- and group-level performance. Because entrepreneurial ventures are thought and implemented by entrepreneurial individuals that are enmeshed in entrepreneurial teams, our project is comprehensively designed in the sense that it includes both individual and team level assessment tools. These instruments will be developed from a set of different indicators (quantitative and qualitative, self-reported and observed) to ensure triangulation and boost the predictive validity of the proposed tools. The development of instruments to reliably assess entrepreneurial competencies will open doors for a more accurate prediction and a decreased bias regarding the relation between individual / team capabilities and venture success. The robust design and methodology for data collection and analysis will allow us to infer causal relations between these very same capabilities and corporate outcomes, which has strong implications for practice and a real potential for scientific publications.