Purpose: A model is developed to analyse what personality traits impact entrepreneurial cognitive and social strategic decision-making skills, originating from the effectuation framework. Design/methodology/approach: 128 participants from an entrepreneurial pre-launch programme were assessed by experienced incubator and business coaches. Personality was measured by a Big Five test. Based on a confirmatory factor analysis, the relationships were analysed between personality and three core dimensions of the effectuation framework: 1) the bird-in-hand principle, 2) the crazy quilt principle and 3) the pilot in the plane principle. Findings: Specific patterns (moderation effects) as opposed to levels of personality traits proved to be relevant. The bird-in-hand and the crazy quilt principles are related to the moderating effect between sensitivity to feedback, sociability and ambition. The pilot in the plane principle was related to the whole pattern of entrepreneurial key qualities embedded in the extraversion domain. Furthermore, relationships of personality with key issues in the effectuation framework were found, examples being reflecting on a high diversity of means or on own talents, conducting a thorough risk analysis and engaging in inspirational networking. The final model revealed a direct positive influence of the capacity to conduct a thorough risk analysis on the overall capacity to apply the effectuation principles. Originality/value: The research results offer deeper insights for the mobilisation and development of complex entrepreneurial behaviours. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-06-2019-0343 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainer-hensel-phd-8ba44a43/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronald-visser-4591034/
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Entrepreneurship stands high on the political European agenda. Its meaning is twofold: entrepreneurship as a career opportunity, or as a competency. Following the statement made in Europe, national governments have defined an urgent need to stimulate entrepreneurial talent and motivate students to become entrepreneurs to start and develop new businesses that will generate employment and create economic and social wealth. Developing entrepreneurship education and training initiatives is one way of helping to achieve this goal. According to the European commission (2008), the teaching of entrepreneurship is not yet sufficiently integrated in higher education institutions' curricula. So the real challenge is to build campus-wide, inter-disciplinary approaches, making entrepreneurship education accessible to all students. At The Hague University of Applied Sciences we develop programs to stimulate entrepreneurship. The question is: to what extent do these programs contribute towards the development of entrepreneurial competencies, in other words: can entrepreneurship be taught? And furthermore, to what extent do the programs contribute to the success of new start-ups by students that followed our programs? Over the last five years time more than 200 students have taken part in three different electives developed in our centre. Some of the findings of our research are that students indeed develop entrepreneurial competencies (Harkema & Schout, 2008). This can partly be attributed to the pedagogical concept underlying the programs. The next step is to determine whether the acquired competencies developed in the program among students that have set up their own business, help them in their business and are accountable for their business success. In this paper we report on the preliminary findings of our research among a sample group of alumni that have followed different programs and set up their own business.
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