Enterprising competencies
Marco van Gelderen
This website is devoted to enterprising competencies: competencies that allow you to create value for for others (which includes non-humans). It focuses in particular on generating ideas for opportunities, taking action, perseverance, networking, teamwork, and convincing others. These competencies are essential whether you are an entrepreneur (by any definition), self-employed (or zzp’er), or an employee. You may know all there is about production, distribution, marketing, finance and such, but if your individual level enterprising competencies are not very developed, you may still not get very far, unless you have someone in your team who makes up for your weaknesses. Even more importantly, enterprising competencies are just as relevant in daily life as in work, as enterprising competencies can be used in many contexts, not just business.
As an Associate Professor at VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands, I have developed a wide range of action learning formats to study and practice enterprising competencies. This learning-by-doing is supported by the academic review articles of the various competencies provided on this website. In recent years I have run short courses amongst others at the VU University Amsterdam, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Turku School of Economics, Aalto University Helsinki, Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University, ESCP Berlin, and Massey University Auckland.
Please email me if you are interested in:
- collaboration on research projects
- the provision of short courses
I am currently editor of the learning innovation section of the Entrepreneurship Education & Pedagogy journal.
Furthermore I am editorial board member of the Journal of Business Venturing as well as of Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice.
My current enterprising skills course is reported in Frontiers in Psychology (assignment 1) and in Education + Training (assignments 2 and 3).
An article on using autonomy to empower students: Autonomy as the guiding aim for entrepreneurship education.
For any other journal article I authored or helped authoring, see the "my journal articles" section on this website.
A recent book chapter with an overview of entrepreneurs' competencies: Entrepreneurs' competencies. (click here for the entire book)
For insights and exercises with regard to the 15 entrepreneurial competencies of the EntreComp, see the website I published with Thomas Lans of the HAN University of Applied Sciences: www.entrecomp.nu.
In 2023 I was awarded the European Entrepreneurship Education Award.
Marco van Gelderen (m.w.van.gelderen@vu.nl).