Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Competences AssessmentAlliance
Existing Tools for Entrepreneurial Assessment and Inventory of Tools
Deliverable 2.2 (WP2)
Executive summary
Version 2.0
Last update: March 2022
This is a public document belonging to Work Package 2 of the project Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Competences Assessment Alliance (EICAA).
Manuscript completed in May 2021, reviewed in December 2021, March 2022.
Authors: Marta Carceller (TecnoCampus), Ester Bernadó (TecnoCampus)
Contact information: ebernado@tecnocampus.cat
The EICAA consortiums consists of the following core partners:
ANTWERP MANAGEMENTSCHOOL
ADSATA EVISTA
MANAGEMENT CENTER INNSBRUCK
TECNOCAMPUS
PROMEDIA KOMMUNIKATION UNIVATIONS
UNIVERSITY OF SZEGED
UNIVERSITY OF HOHENHEIM
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1. Introduction
In 2016, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union set out recommendations on key competences for lifelong learning, one of which is entrepreneurship, an individual’s ability to turn ideas into action . Consequently, the development of entrepreneurial competences has become the focus on many programs in Higher Education Institutions and other educational institutions in Europe. Given the importance of entrepreneurial competence development, the European Commission developed EntreComp, the Entrepreneurial Competence Framework (Bacigalupo et al., 2016), which identifies a list of 15 competences grouped in three competence areas: Ideas and Opportunities, Resources, and Into Action. The framework is the first step towards a common understanding of what competences are needed for entrepreneurship and has helped many educational institutions design educational programs aligned with these competences.
Teaching and learning entrepreneurship require tools for assessing entrepreneurship competences. Assessment is useful before the start of a program, at the end of the program and/oralongtheprogramtomonitor competence development. Being aware of this need, many HEIs have developed their own tools to assess entrepreneurship competences of their students and to measure the impact of their programs. Also, organisations (companies or consultant agencies) have developed their own tools to measure the competences of the employees or individuals in order to coach and train them appropriately. At the present time, there is a large variety of tools designed to assessentrepreneurialcompetences,butveryfewofthemfollowacommoncompetence framework such as EntreComp. This large variety reflects a lack of standardisation of competence assessment tools. Consequently, any HEI or business willing to apply a competence assessment tool is faced with a dispersity of tools, each relying on different understandings of what competences are needed. This leads the HEIs or business to develop their own tools, further contributing to the number and variety of existing tools. Thecreationofastandardcompetenceassessment survey, whichcouldbeusedbyany institution across Europe, would establish a common language for assessing entrepreneurship competences, which would help in the evaluation of entrepreneurship programs and their improvement.
Theresearchsummarisedinthepresentdocumentsetsthefirststeptowardsthedesign of such a common entrepreneurial assessment tool by identifying and analysing the existing entrepreneurship competence surveys. The current executive summary reflects the results of a systematic review of entrepreneurial assessment tools. The aim of the research is to develop an updated and detailed categorization of the most relevant entrepreneurial assessment tools existing in the literature and currently available online. Together with a list of the most relevant tools, an analysis of their components is provided. One of the benefits of this analysis is to provide guidance to researchers, teachers, trainers and coaches on the best tools available to assess entrepreneurship competences.
This research not only applies to the context of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), but also in any other setting where individuals are asked to provide solutions to today’s challenges, either in governmental agencies, consultancies, start-ups, established companies and organisations of all types. Any organisation that aims to develop the entrepreneurial competences of their staff is potentially interested in assessing the
entrepreneurial competences of their employees and managers, to identify individuals’ and teams’ strengths and weaknesses, and building on that, devise training and mentoring programs.
As part of the project EICAA (Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Competences Assessment Alliance), funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ program, this document contributes to the achievement of the project's objective, which is to develop a digital platform for the assessment and development of entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial competences. This analysis also serves as a foundation for EICAA’s CompetenceMonitor,byidentifyingbestpracticesandpotentiallimitationsoftheexisting tools, and thus helps to design a new assessment tool.
2.Methodology
To conduct the analysis of the most relevant competence assessment tools, we applied the methodology of a systematic literature review, in which we searched both in academic literature and in grey literature. As a result, a total of 28 entrepreneurial assessment tools were found, but once the exclusion criteria were applied, the number of available tools of our sample was reduced to eight. The main exclusion criteria were to be able to access the tool online and complete the tool. To analyse the assessment tools, we built a code book as shown in Table 1
Table 1. Code book used in the literature review
Code
Source
Description
Reference of paper and/or web site if available.
Author Author of the tool: individual, educational institution, business or other organisation who designed and implemented the tool.
Target Targetgrouptowhomthesurveyisdesigned(e.g.,students,entrepreneurs, employees…)
Aim Aim or purpose of the assessment tool (e.g., entrepreneurial competences, personality traits of the entrepreneur, innovation capacity…)
Competence Framework
Versioning
Time
Dimensions
Number of questions
Type of questions
Taxonomyorcompetence framework of referencein which theassessment tool has relied.
Whether several versions of the test exist, and if so, which one is used for the current analysis.
Expected time needed to complete the survey
Structure of assessment tool in dimensions or subdimensions.
Numberofquestionsoritemsofthetest.Also,whetheritisvariableorfixed.
Open questions, closed questions, Likert-scales…
Instructions Instructions provided to the participant to answer the assessment. They could be related to the aim of the test, the time to complete the survey, motivational messages, etc.
Pre-test Questions asked to the participant, beyond the targeted questions of the survey, such as demographics questions.
Post-test Same as before, asked upon completion of the survey.
Feedback Feedback provided to the participant after completing the survey.
3.Repository of entrepreneurship assessment tools
Tool Description Website Target group Platform Registration Tested?
ASTEE Assessment Tools for Entrepreneurship Education
Developed to assess entrepreneurial skills, knowledge, attitudes, and mindsets of students from primary, secondary and tertiary level of education. The use of these tools before and after the training action were recommended.
Developed under ASTEE project, cofunded by the European Community, the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), which lasted from December 2012 until June 2014.
ATC21S Assessment and Teaching of 21st century skills
Sponsored by Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corp.
Not found.
Link to a report about how it was developed:
https://eng.ffeye.dk/media/789196/a stee-report-rev.pdf
Students from primary, secondary and tertiary level of education.
Not found Not found No (not found)
http://www.atc21s.org/ Students Website. The test has not been found
The test has not been found No
Tool Description
Aim: to research and develop new approaches, methods and technologies for measuring the success of 21st-century teaching and learning in classrooms around the world. The project is focused on defining these skills and developing ways to measure them.
Website
Target group Platform Registration Tested?
BDC
Entrepre neurial potential selfassess ment*
Developed by BDC (Business Development Bank of Canada).
It measures the aptitude, motivations and drive to run one’s business.
https://www.bdc.ca/en/ articlestools/entrepreneurtoolkit/businessassessments/selfassessment-test-yourentrepreneurialpotential
Students, employees, employers, entrepreneurs
Website No Yes
Berkley Innovati on Index*
A quantitative approach to measure, trackandforecastinnovationcapability within individuals and organisations. Based on BMoE framework, which identifies ten behavioural patterns of successful entrepreneurs.
COLLA BORAT E -
https://innovationindex.anvil.app/
Unspecified Website/a pp No Yes
Not found Not found Not found Not found No
*
Tool Description
Enterpri se Catalyst
Originally developed by Dr. David Johnson, it has been used in different institutions across the UK. The test measures the aspirations, attitudes and activities of individuals in relation to a number of entrepreneurial factors.
Entreint ent -
Entreme
tric
Measuring Entrepreneurial Mindset
EntreMetric's EQA is an online assessment that provides quantitative information about how well the assessment taker's entrepreneurial mindset aligns with successful entrepreneurs in five statistically derived areas. The EQA report contains statistical and written feedback about the assessment taker's entrepreneurial mindset. The assessment is a useful tool to assess people and programs interested in entrepreneurial mindset such as students and academic programs, companieswantingtounderstandtheir intrapreneurship culture, startups, incubators and accelerators, small
Website Target group Platform Registration Tested?
https://www.enterprise catalyst.co.uk/ All kind of profiles: students, employees, entrepreneurs...
Website Yes. It is free Yes
Not found Not found Not found Not found No
https://entremetric.com / Individuals, SBA Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), lending agencies, incubators, educational programs and universities.
Web Registration needed. Not accessed
Tool Description
business lending, and leadership programs.
Website
Target group Platform Registration Tested?
Entrepre neurial mindset index (EMI)TM
Developed by The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)
Aim: to measure mastery in eight core domains that have been identified as critical to entrepreneurial thinking. It is an instrument to measure entrepreneurial mindset, and the eight domains arecaptured with Likert items and Situational Judgement Tests.
https://www.nfte.com/e ntrepreneurialmindset/
Students Website. The test has not been found
The test has not been found No
Entrepre neurial mindset orientati on scale
-
More info: http://accelerationgrou p.net/wpcontent/uploads/2019/ 01/MeasuringEntrepreneurialMindset-in-YouthNovember-2018.pdf
Not found Not found Not found Not found No
Entrepreneur Profile Test*
Developed by Stefan Lindstrom, consultant, and Hans Olle Frummerin, psychologist. Test that categorises an individual in one of six entrepreneurial profiles or archetypes that the tool has identified.
https://entrepreneurpro filetest.com/ Entrepreneurs, students, employees, employers, talent recruiters...
Website Yes, it is free Yes
Tool Description
EPIC Tool*
Tool developer under an EU-funded project. It measures entrepreneurial competences on students before and after a course. It is based on EntreComp framework.
Website Target group Platform Registration Tested?
https://heinnovate.eu/e n/user/login?destinatio n=epic/dashboard
Teachers and Higher Education Institutions
Website Yes Yes
E-Scan Entrepre neurial Assess ment Text*
Tool developed by a consultant company, targeting entrepreneurs and other individuals. The survey is built upon a competence framework developed by the company named “Entrepreneur Competence Model”. The survey tests motivation, personal characteristics, qualities or abilities and knowledge and experience.
ESP Entrepreneurial Skills Pass
Self-assessment tool of entrepreneurial competences.
Developed under the ESP project, fundedwithsupportfromtheEuropean Commission, under the Leonardo da Vinci Programme.
Theaimwastodevelopacertificatefor students aged between 15 and 19 years old that had a real entrepreneurship experience after passing an examination. In the project
https://entrepreneursc an.com/ Unspecified Website Yes, it is free Yes
http://www.entreprene urialskillspass.eu/ Students aged 15-19. The final exam can be taken at the end of the learning experience.
Web Registration is needed and the user receives a verification code in order to apply as candidate or trainer.
The test should be taken once the participant has had a real entrepreneur ship experience. The test cannot be taken
Tool Description
a full-year in-school programme experience was implemented together with an assessment of the entrepreneurial competences and an examination.
ETECA -
GEM Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
Project started in 1999 as a joint research between Babson College (USA) and London Business School (UK).
They carry out survey-based research on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship ecosystems around the world.
They collect data on entrepreneurship directly from individual entrepreneurs.
Website Target group Platform Registration Tested?
without the program experience.
Not found Not found Not found Not found No
https://www.gemconso rtium.org/ Data is collected from individual entrepreneurs. GEM data and tools can be used by academics, policymakers, entrepreneurs, sponsors and organizations.
Internal GEM staff only
Not possible to registerandtake the test by your own.
Not possible to register and take the test by your own.
Aggregated tests. All GEM data collection is centrally coordinated. GEM data experts work closely with National Teams andsurvey vendorsto guarantee the quality of the data. All
Tool Description
surveys are subject to a range of checks before data collection begins. The resulting data is scrutinised repeatedly before release. These processes, developed over many years, ensure that GEM data is of the very highest quality.
Website Target group Platform Registration Tested?
Get2Tes
t
Durham
*
The data collection engine powering GEM research is composed of two complementary tools - the Adult Population Survey (APS) and the National Expert Survey (NES).
Developed by Durham University Business School, the test measures the entrepreneurial characteristics most related to entrepreneurial behaviour: motivation, creative tendency, calculated risk-taking, and internal locus of control.
GUESS Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey
http://www.get2test.net / Unspecified Website No Yes
Research project about students entrepreneurship. Every 2–3 years, a global data collection effort takes
https://www.guesssurv ey.org/ Country teams or as university partners
Website For the next GUESSSedition in 2023, detailed information about how to participate will
No
Tool Description
Website Target group Platform Registration Tested? place. For every participating country, there is one responsible country team which coordinates data collection in that country.
GoForth Canadian online training platform for entrepreneurs that includes series of short instructional videos that costs 16,25 dollars per month.
be available soon.
https://www.goforthinst itute.com/training Entrepreneurs Website/a pp Yes. The test is linked to a training, and there is the possibility to pay for this training.
No
LoopMe Formative assessment tool that allows teachers to design an action-based learning experience by breaking it down into manageable tasks for students, creating one-to-one dialogs between teachers and learners.
https://www.loopme.io/ Users in thefields of education, management and research.
Cloudbased service used on the web, tablet or smartpho ne
There are 4 types of fares: Free trial for 30 days, Basic for 4€/month, Standard for 8€/month, and Plus for 12€/month
No(itisnota predesigned test, but a tool for teachers, managers or researchers who can freely determine the questions or tasks to be performed by the group of individuals.
Tool Description
Website
Target group Platform Registration Tested?
Examples can be found but none of them analyse entrepreneur ial competence s through a questionnair e. They are examples of tasks that a student/work er/individual can perform on their own under the supervision of a teacher or leader).
MIND Cette
- MIND Cette. Dr. Shaver, researcher and professor at the College of Charleston (USA), developed a website and a test for entrepreneurs to allow them to know
https://www.mindcette. com/ Companies
Website An email has to be sent to test the company’s entrepreneurial capacity.
No
Tool Description
Website Target group Platform Registration Tested? where they stand on dimensions that are related to entrepreneurial success.
MTEE* Measurement Tool for Entrepreneurial Education
Developed by LUT University, measures the impact of entrepreneurship education at the teachers’ level.
https://eumtee.lut.fi/ Teachers in entrepreneurial training
Website Yes, it is free. Yes
OctoSkil
ls
OctoDas
h
Application tools to assess students’ self-efficacy and entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions.
Developed by the Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship, based on the EU-funded ASTEE project.
http://www.octoskills.c
om Teachers (OctoSkills) and department leaders of education institutions (OctoDash)
App (not found) App (not found) No (not found)
OICAT Towards an Opportunity Identification Competence Assessment Test.
A study led by researchers of different European universities elaborated a test of a performance assessment to investigate the “Opportunity Identification Competence” (OIC) of students in higher education. This instrument had 2 tasks:
Task 1 related to business opportunity idea generation and based on the
The instrument has not been found although the research papers are published: https://www.researchg ate.net/publication/315
664337_Development _and_application_of_t he_opportunity_identifi cation_competence_a
Students of higher education. Not found Not found Not found
instrument
Corbett
Students were askedtogenerateasmuchideas as possible within 10 minutes on sustainable development after reading the case.
Task 2 related to evaluation of opportunities for their potential to become a successful start-up. Ten arguments were presented: five of them in line with the profile of a novice entrepreneur and 5 of an experienced entrepreneur. Students were asked to select 5 arguments they thought the most important when determining the potential of business opportunities in five minutes.
Tool Description
SOCCE S Project coordinated by Coventry University (UK)
Consists of developing a framework and a methodology for assessment of two competences important for working life:
Sense of Initiative and Entrepreneurship
Social competences.
The project started in February 2015 and finished in 2017.
Valorise Toi DevelopedbytheNationalWorkTeam of ScoutsetGuidesdeFrancewiththe aim of helping to enhance the value of the skills gained through volunteering. It consists in gaining recognition in the university and professional fields for therichness,diversityandseriousness of the skills acquired and implemented around the role of Responsible in Scouting.
Not found.
Handbook:
https://www.academia. edu/36257119/SOCC ES_HANDBOOK_ASS
ESSMENT_OF_TRAN SVERSAL_COMPETE
NCES_FOCUS_ON_E NTREPRENEURSHIP
_SENSE_OF_INITIATI
VE_AND_SOCIAL_SK ILLS
Not found.
Manual: http://euroscoutinfo.co m/wpcontent/uploads/2012/ 02/empower_yourself_ final_version.pdf
Not found Not found Not found No
Not found Not found Not found No
4.Results
We analysed eight competence assessment tools in depth. Most of the tools that we accessed were developed in educational institutions and sometimes, in the framework of European funded projects. Other tools were developed by consulting companies aiming at providing tailored coaching or training services. Specifically, four of the tools (50%) are developed by educational institutions (BII, Get2Test, MTEE, EPIC) and the remaining four (50%) are developed by consulting companies or organisations whose primary target is entrepreneurs (BDC, Entrepreneur Scan, EPT, E-CAT).
As follows, we summarise the main results of the analysis1 .
Competence Frameworks
Most of the tools are based on self-tailored framework of entrepreneurial competences. Only EPIC tool uses EntreComp as the reference entrepreneurship competence framework.
It was observed that the assessment tools tend to evaluate personality traits of the entrepreneur, such as motivation, creativity, perseverance, risk-taking, or interpersonal skills. This might be explained by the early research on entrepreneurship which tried to find correlations between entrepreneurial success and the traits of the entrepreneurs. Other surveys, such as E-CAT, go beyond these traits by including entrepreneurial intentions, entrepreneurial behavioursandengagement inentrepreneuriallearning. This is also observed in EPIC, which also adds readiness for business creation assessment -intentions- and venture creation assessment -behaviours-.
We also noticed that similar questions are distributed differently in different groupings, depending on the dimension structure of the assessment tool. Also, the naming of these dimensions differed across the tools. Consequently, we found it difficult to compare the different assessment tools in terms of dimensions that were covered and the particular competences that they addressed.
Target group
It was observed that the tools that are designed in the context of educational institutions are mainly targeted to students or teachers, while tools developed by companies or consultantstargetentrepreneursandindividualsorteams.Althoughthisseemsobvious, given the different contexts in which each tool has been developed, we can also infer a potentialgapbetweeneducationalinstitutionsandbusinesses.If educationalinstitutions also target real entrepreneurs or intrapreneurial employees, start-ups, businesses and organisations could benefit from this.
Design
1 The current executive summary presents a summary of the findings of the literature review. For more information, the reader can access the full paper that is currently under review. Please, see the contact author.
Most of the surveys were based on self-assessment questions, with answers in a Likert scale. Since self-assessment can lead to biases, some tools use different types of questions, combining self-assessment items with a few questions based on situational judgement scenarios. The number of items was between 30 and 109 and the estimated time was mostly below 15’, except for some cases with estimated time until 30’.
Validation
Most of the tools that were assessed do not provide published validation of the surveys, which means that the dimensional structure of the tool and the number of items may need further refinement. Some of the surveys have collected a high number of answers and then, they provide a comparison of the participants’ results with the average population in their general score and in each of the subdimensions. Although this might be informative, the participant should be aware that the mean score of all other participantsmight not berelevant if theanswershave highvariability. Furthermore, such comparisons should be made with similar target groups (i.e., by age, educational background or gender), but this is not provided either.
In summary, more research needs to be conducted on assessing entrepreneurial competences by identifying a common framework of entrepreneurial competences, as proposed under the EntreComp framework, and designing and validating the corresponding survey. Standardization and normalisation to different target groups of such tools, as done in the field of psychology, would help advance the current understanding of the entrepreneurial capacities of individuals.
5.References
Bacigalupo, M., Kampylis, P., Punie, Y., & Van den Brande, G. (2016). EntreComp: The entrepreneurship competence framework. Publication Office of the European Union, 10, 593884.
Berkeley Innovation Index (2022). https://innovationindex.berkeley.edu/ Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC). (2022). https://www.bdc.ca/en/articlestools/entrepreneur-toolkit/business-assessments/self-assessment-test-yourentrepreneurial-potential
Caird, S. (2022). GET2 test. http://www.get2test.net/ Entrepreneur Scan. (2022) https://entrepreneurscan.com/blog/skills-abilitiesknowledge-competencies/ HEInnovate (s.d.). EPIC. Entrepreneurial Potential and Innovation Competences. A course assessment tool. A Guide to using EPIC on HEInnovate. https://heinnovate.eu/en/user/sign-in?destination=en/epic/dashboard
Johnson D. (2022). Enterprise Catalyst. https://www.enterprisecatalyst.co.uk/ Lindstrom, S., (2010). Entrepreneur Profile Test. https://entrepreneurprofiletest.com/ LUT University (2020). Measurement tool for Entrepreneurship Education (MTEE). https://eumtee.lut.fi/
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