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ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET PROJECT

Kelly G. ShaverPresident, MindCette®, LLC

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Why study entrepreneurs?• Even slowly-growing entrepreneurial companies create jobs• Policy-makers would like to support this economic development• But there are significant failure rates• Top three reasons for failure (CB Insights): • No market need• Ran out of cash• Not the right team

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Individual factors to consider

• Reasons to create a company• Broad personality dispositions• Narrow individual traits• Cognitive processes • Behavioral predispositions that support action• Aspects of persistence• Resilience in the face of failure

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Why another test? (I)Construct ASTEE EMP GET2 OURS

Achievement x x x

Action orientation x x x

Autonomy x x x

Creativity x x x

Locus of control x x x

Risk acceptance x x x

Self-confidence x x x

ASTEE = EU Assessment tools and indicators for entrepreneurship education.EMP = US Entrepreneurial mindset profileGET2 = UK General measure of enterprising tendency, v. 2

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Why another test? (II)Construct ASTEE EMP GET2 OURS

Adaptability x

Coachability x

Curiosity x

Financial motives x

Grit x

Innovation x

Metacognition x

Normative structure x

Opportunity recog. x

Personal motives x

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Current status of the project• Pilot testing with undergraduate entrepreneurship students• Large-scale pilot in South Africa (N = 600)• Preliminary analysis• Females and males differ• Checking for skewness, across items and within people• Wordings may need to be made more extreme