Environment, Education, and Personality Innovation Based Index

Abstract

Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) are evolving as highly important concepts around the world, as they heavily contribute to the economic development of many countries. Identifying, educating, and supporting innovators and entrepreneurs are urgent and crucial as there are no innovators and entrepreneurs’ identification frameworks exist yet considering all aspects of I&E. As researchers highlight the importance of I&E in societies, they tried to identify the related factors affecting the development of innovators and entrepreneurs by developing and using different models, such as the General Enterprise Tendency Index, the Complex Process Model of Entrepreneurship, and the Global Entrepreneurship Index. Factors related to I&E as found in the literature are classified as environmental factors, personal factors, and academic performance-related factors. However, the topic of how to identify innovators and entrepreneurs using all three factors combined, and how these factors interact is still ambiguous and needs to be studied. In this thesis, a framework is developed to model and assess the effect of I&E-related factors and their interaction on a newly developed I&E index. We developed a literature review-based questionnaire that addresses all three factors and their effects. Collected responses were analyzed through a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach. The model consisted of three constructs representing the three factors found in the literature and an output variable representing the proposed I&E index. To evaluate the developed model, the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI), the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), the Root Mean Square Error (RSME) of Approximation, and the P-value were utilized. Model metrics showed an excellent model fit with CFI of 0.911, TLI of 0.905, RMSEA of 0.036, and a p-value of 0.000. Although model results indicate significant effects of the three factors on the developed I&E index, the personal traits factor had the highest effect encouraging more research on personality development for better innovation and entrepreneurship achievements among individuals.