Entrepreneur profile and entrepreneurship skills: Expert's analysis in the Mexican entrepreneurial ecosystem

Abstract

Entrepreneurship has high relevance in recent years, thanks to its contribution to the growth of the economy and job generation. The purpose of this research is to analyze and validate through consultation to experts of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Mexico, the main features and skills that form a successful entrepreneur. The study followed a Delphi method in two rounds, with 26 participants. Results allowed determining which traits and skills are the most relevant for entrepreneurship development in this context, such as perseverance, the attitude to achieve an objective, the ability to identify opportunities and motivation. On the other hand, the experts gave less importance to the sociodemographic traits in their influence on entrepreneurship, as are the cases of gender, age, or level of education. Skills such as seeking opportunities, communication, and persistence were considered as the most important for experts. These findings can be used to develop training programs, to define content that promotes those traits and skills, and to strengthen the entrepreneur’s development into an ecosystem. Analysis of the topic through consultation with experts in Mexico is original and allows validating the findings in an underrepresented region in the literature.