An enterprising tendency is defined as the tendency to start up and manage projects - highly enterprising people do this more often and are more innovative and growth-oriented in their approach. Enterprise may be expressed by starting your own business, operating as an intrapreneur within an organisation or by setting up community setting up community initiatives, either as a social entrepreneur or a voluntrapreneur. This self assessment test should take you about ten minutes to complete and will give you an idea of your enterprising potential. Your ability to express your enterprising potential may depend on the changing constraints and contexts in your life and career. Your enterprising tendency may also change in response to challenges you face at different key phases of your life and career development. There is much academic debate about the most important characteristics of enterprising people. This test suggests an emphasis on the following key characteristics:
The enterprising person is highly motivated, energetic, and has a capacity for hard work. They are busy, driven, dynamic and highly committed to getting things done. Their high motivation levels are characterised by a high need for achievement and for autonomy, manifesting as the desire to lead, shape and complete projects.
The enterprising person is restless with ideas, and has an imaginative approach to solving problems. They tend to see life in a different way to others, spotting opportunities around them. Their innovative tendency helps them to develop ideas to create new products (goods and services) and systems, new intellectual property and artistic outputs, and new businesses and ventures across sectors.
The enterprising person is opportunistic and identifies goals they wish to pursue. This will usually involve some risk to them– their time, finances and personal relationships. They may be willing to take risks in some or all of these areas. They seek information and expertise to assess if it is worth pursuing the opportunity, although the nature of calculated risk-taking means there is a risk and they may be proved wrong. They also need to convince their investors and supporters to take a calculated risk.
The enterprising person has an internal rather than external locus of control which means that they believe they have control over their own destiny and make their own ‘luck’. This means that they confidently seek to exert control over life, draw on inner resources and believe that it is down to them if they succeed through their own efforts and hard work.
Note that the test is not definitive and it should only be used as an educational aid for thinking about enterprise. You could discuss your responses with a supportive group of students, teacher or friends. Try getting involved with setting up and managing projects, then take the test again to see if your scores change. If you are not happy with your test scores, personal transformation is an open door! If you want to be enterprising then you are half-way there!
The description of the enterprising person is drawn from what is known about entrepreneurs; the idea being that the enterprising person shares entrepreneurial characteristics. Simply put, an enterprising tendency is defined as the tendency to start up and manage projects - highly enterprising people do this more often and are more innovative and growth-oriented in their approach. This suggests that enterprising people have to be opportunistic and good at utilising resources and capabilities, including human, technological, material and organisational resources and capabilities. An enterprising tendency may be expressed by starting your own business, operating as an intrapreneur within an organisation or by setting up community initiatives either as a social entrepreneur or a voluntrapreneur. Just as there are different types of entrepreneurs, distinguished by their growth orientation, motivation, type of business, engagement with new technology, association with business owner management and particular sectors, and so on, there are different ways enterprising people can operate.
A person who is highly enterprising has the following qualities:
The enterprising person is highly motivated, energetic, and has a capacity for hard work. They are busy, driven, dynamic and highly committed to getting things done. Their high motivation levels are characterised by a high need for achievement, manifesting as the desire to lead, shape and complete projects.
A person with a high need for achievement has the following qualities:
The enterprising person is highly motivated, energetic, likes to lead, shape and do things their way. They are independent, driven, dynamic and may have to be number one or work solo.
A person with a high need for autonomy has the following qualities:
The enterprising person is restless with ideas, and has an imaginative approach to solving problems. They tend to see life in a different way to others, spotting opportunities around them. Their innovative tendency and need for achievement helps them to develop ideas to create new products, services and systems, new intellectual property and artistic outputs, and new businesses and ventures across sectors.
A person with a creative tendency has the following qualities:
The enterprising person is opportunistic and identifies goals they wish to pursue. This will usually involve some risk to them– their time, finances and personal relationships. They seek information and expertise to assess if it is worth pursuing the opportunity. They also need to convince their investors and supporters to take a calculated risk.
A calculated risk-taker has the following qualities:
The enterprising person has an internal rather than external locus of control which means that they believe you have control over own destiny and make their own ‘luck’. This means that they confidently seek to exert control over life, draw on inner resources and believe that it is down to them if they succeed through their own efforts and hard work.
A person who has an internal locus of control has the following qualities:
Understanding of the enterprising person is largely drawn from what is known about entrepreneurs; the idea being that the enterprising person shares entrepreneurial characteristics...
You might prefer to answer that you ‘sometimes’ or ‘slightly’ agree on occasion. You may dislike tests that require you to decide if you tend to agree or disagree with statements....
Although GET2 has proved useful as an aid to education and personal reflection about enterprising tendency, predictive validity has not been established. However, GET2 may help you ....
Perhaps you already have experience in business, or have undertaken projects at school, or within employment as an intrapreneur, or within your community....
Sorry that this result seems negative. Organisations and communities need more enterprising people, but it would not be ideal if everyone was enterprising....
These are all people with enterprising characteristics, but ones who operate in different contexts. The ‘Entrepreneur’ starts up and runs their....
GET2 works in a similar manner to psychometric tests, in that it asks a series of cross-referenced questions aimed at determining certain characteristics....
Thankyou for all the many comments we receive about the GET2 Test.
Here are just a selection of the responses, showing how the test is being used.
Since the General measure of Enterprising Tendency (GET) test was developed in 1988 at Durham University Business School, it has generated a lot of interest amongst academics, working internationally in the areas of entrepreneurship and innovation. In recent years it has generated interest amongst educationists and researchers working in higher educational institutions and universities, as well as development consultancies*, for its potential as both an educational and research tool. The GET2test website has been widely used with an average of 2000 users per month, who use the GET2 test online, and has been adopted by more than 80 institutions and organisations across over 30 countries.The map and list below identifies the key institutions around the world who have, over the years, requested to use the GET2 test for research, development and educational purposes.
The many institutions who have used GET2 are presented on the map above and are listed below:
* Please note this list may not be complete and does not imply these institutions endorse the GET2 test materials.
If your Institute is using GET2 but is not yet on this list, please contact us.
The General measure of Enterprising Tendency (GET) test was developed in 1987-1988 by Dr Sally Caird and Mr Cliff Johnson at Durham University Business School with funding from the University Grants Council whose functions have now been taken over by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
The basic premise of the GET test is that the enterprising person shares entrepreneurial characteristics. The psychological literature has different views on entrepreneurial characteristics and which ones are important. The approach we took involved identifying key characteristics of entrepreneurial people which are associated with entrepreneurial behaviour and entrepreneurship. The key entrepreneurial characteristics identified were: strong motivation, characterised by a high need for achievement and for autonomy; creative tendency; calculated risk-taking; and an internal locus of control (belief you have control over own destiny and make your own ‘luck’). The idea is that people set up an enterprise because they are highly motivated by a good idea to achieve something themselves and will take calculated risks, because they believe they can set up the enterprise successfully.
The research followed a literature review to identify key psychological characteristics of entrepreneurs and an review of relevant psychological tests leading to the creation of a bank of entrepreneurial descriptions. This was pilot tested with entrepreneurs and other occupational groups (including teachers, nurses, civil servants, clerical workers, lecturers and trainers) to establish initial construct validity and reliability. The GET test was refined and validated with occupational and other groups during a time limited research project. Further research and validation of the test is recommended.
The original GET test was developed as a paper-based research tool with little interpretation for application in classroom face-to-face assessment. The GET test was later adapted for use by Training Enterprise Companies (TEC) in the form of a knowledge-based system to contribute to training business owner-managers. Over the past 35 years there has been considerable worldwide interest in the General measure of Enterprising Tendency (GET test) with applications in education, research, development and training in a range of contexts (higher education, further education and school contexts). Due to this interest and the volume of requests for the test, Sally Caird created this website which is freely available to people who wish to test their enterprising tendency, or for educational and research purposes. This is based on the original GET test with minor revisions to update elements together with development of it as an educational resource.
The GET2test has been considered very useful for research, education, training and development purposes. Extensive research has been conducted with the GET test leading to a large body of available publications. However, the GET2test tool provides an indicative but not a definitive measure of enterprising tendency. It should be used primarily as an educational tool to prompt thought and reflection about what it means to be enterprising.
The following journal articles, reports and book chapters provide the references to the GET2 test in this work, providing details of how it was developed and tested. If you have a paper published referencing GET2, do let us know.
Caird, S. (1989a) Enterprise Competencies. Scottish Enterprise Foundation, Occasional Paper Series No. 65189.
Caird, S. (1989b) An Initial Approach To Defining, Teaching And Assessing Enterprise Competencies. Scottish Enterprise Foundation, Working Paper Series No. 03/89.
Caird, S. (1992) Testing Enterprising Tendency In Occupational Groups. DUBS Occasional Paper, 9205, ISBN NO 1 85773 017 8 (Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, from the original publication in the British Journal Of Management, Volume 2, pp. 177-186.)
Caird, S. (2006) General measure of Enterprising Tendency Version 2 (GET2), Appendix in T. Mazzarol, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Australia: Tilde University Press. May.
Caird, Sally (1990a) What does it mean to be enterprising? British Journal of Management, 1(3), pp. 137–145. Available online
Caird, Sally (1990b) Enterprise competencies: an agenda for research. Journal of European Industrial Training, 14(7), pp. 3–8. Available online
Caird, S. (1991a) Self Assessments On Enterprise Training Courses, British Journal Of Education And Work,4(3), pp. 63-80.
Caird, Sally (1991b) Testing enterprising tendency in occupational groups. British Journal of Management, 2(4), pp. 177–186. Available online
Caird, Sally (1991c) The enterprising tendency of occupational groups. International Small Business Journal, 9(4), pp. 75–81. Available online
Caird, S. (1992) Problems with The Identification Of Enterprise Competency with the Implications For Assessment And Development, Management Education And Development, 23(1). Available online
Caird, Sally (1993) What do psychological tests suggest about entrepreneurs? Journal of Managerial Psychology, 8(6), pp. 11–20. Available online
Caird, Sally (1994a) How important is the innovator for the commercial success of innovative products in SMEs? Technovation, 14(2), pp. 71–83. Available online
Caird, Sally (1994b) How do award winners come up with innovative ideas? Creativity and Innovation Management, 3(1), pp. 3–10. Available online
Business Cornwall, ‘Ignite entrants GET ready’ article. Aug 1, 2013 (see here)
We would welcome constructive comment or feedback via our online user-satisfaction survey as to how you have used and found the GET2 test.
Dr S.Caird,
The School of Engineering and Innovation,
Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths,
The Open University,
Walton Hall,
Milton Keynes,
MK7 6AA, UK
GET2 test Web development: Dr S.Hallett
If you have found the GET2 test useful in your own reflection and development, please consider making a donation to assist us in keeping this service available online.
