Analysing, pursuing and networking: Towards a validated three-factor framework for entrepreneurial competence from a small firm perspective
基于荷兰农业食品行业348名小企业主的数据，通过探索性和验证性因子分析，验证了创业能力的三个核心维度：分析、追求和网络化，为行业发展和职业教育提供了实用框架。
Moving beyond general personal traits as predictors for success, a growing volume of research acknowledges that entrepreneurial core processes are enabled by specific competencies which can be learned, further refined and developed. The research objective of this article is to develop a framework for entrepreneurial competence in a well-defined small firm sector by elaborating and empirically validating an existing categorization of entrepreneurial competence. The dataset includes 348 small firm owner-managers who participated in an educational programme, established to pursue new business opportunities in the Dutch agri-food sector. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis revealed that three domains constitute the heart of entrepreneurial competence in this small firm context: ‘analysing’, ‘pursuing’ and ‘networking’. These three competence domains provide professionals active in sector development, small business support and (vocational) education with an empirically valid framework of clearly discernible elements of entrepreneurial competence. This framework also encompasses insights on education and learning.