Research into Early-Stage Identification of Entrepreneurs and Innovators with Development of an Identification Guidance Framework

In recent years, young entrepreneurs have attracted considerable interest from Government policy makers and the media and the evidence and general consensus of opinion is that the numbers of young people aspiring to start their own businesses is increasing. Courses are being created for further and higher education as well as modules developed at schools to introduce young people to business studies, however not everyone is suited to the courses, and those who undertake them may never go on to realise their aspirations of having a successful business.
Entrepreneurs and innovators are crucial for society in order to develop new businesses, products and services, thus creating job prospects and wealth for the country and society as a whole. Many entrepreneurs don’t become entrepreneurs until later in life, or their skills and attributes never materialise and lie dormant due to factors such as financial insecurity, lack of confidence or guidance as to how they can control their destiny. It is believed that entrepreneurship can be, to a certain extent taught, but only successfully, to individuals who have entrepreneurial traits and who have been identified as being entrepreneurial.
Previous studies have mainly focused on existing entrepreneurs and those with failed businesses. By contrast this thesis seeks to identify the traits and characteristics that make individuals entrepreneurs, with a view to devising a framework of identifiable indicators for the tertiary education age group of 16 - 18 years old, leading potentially to early-stage identification of entrepreneurs. Leading on from the validated identification framework, online software tools have been developed as a user age-appropriate interface that will be suitable for providing the necessary identification of entrepreneurs in the 16-18 age groups. This study provides a further opportunity for additional research into the development of entrepreneur mentoring and training guidelines that can assist in preparing the potential entrepreneurs for their future by giving them tutorial programmes to develop their businesses successfully. This research programme seeks to establish a paradigm as to what it is that makes someone entrepreneurial, primarily focussed on positively identifying traits exhibited by existing entrepreneurs which can be used to assist in that identification process.
As part of the research work completed so far, these traits have now been identified and have expanded upon the limited number of traits previously recognised as being entrepreneurial. A new derivation for an Entrepreneurial Trait has been created which shall be known as an ‘Entrephonotypic Trait’ which is a grouping of specifically recognised traits which have been found to be common to entrepreneurs.
In addition to the research new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality have been evaluated for integration and use in training programs to assist the development of young entrepreneurs who have the potential to become successful in their business ventures. This thesis makes a significant contribution to knowledge which can be further expanded upon and utilised in future studies and research.