Research says Irish executives more likely to become entrepreneurs

THE ENGLISH may be a nation of shopkeepers, as economist Adam Smith once said, but it looks like the Irish may have their own claim to fame when it comes to business ability. New research has found that Irish executives are more likely than other nationalities to become entrepreneurs.

Some 117 senior Irish executives were surveyed for a two-year study backed by the Oxford Psychologists Press and undertaken by the Irish Management Institute and the IDA. Based on a range of psychometric tests, including the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and the 16PF, the study found that Irish executives and entrepreneurs were more likely than their international counterparts to engage in “right-brain thinking” – a mode of thinking that emphasises intuition, imagination and the “tolerance of ambiguity” – characteristics that are perceived as central to entrepreneurship.

The study also found that Irish executives displayed a higher than average tendency to prioritise relationships and forge relationships – a skill-set that sets them apart from business leaders from other countries and may contribute to entrepreneurial success.

In a week when corporate Ireland came in for renewed criticism with the publication of two reports on the banking crisis, Ireland’s business leaders can take solace in the fact that they share some of the imagination, flair and intuition of their fellow countrymen such as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett (although some may ask whether the oversupply of intuition may be one of the reasons for the ill-fated fortunes of some of Ireland’s top companies in recent years).

Launching the report yesterday, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe said that the research showed that Ireland is “an entrepreneurial nation”.

“It [the research] supports much anecdotal evidence about Irish business people, [it] shows that we Irish think and act in a unique and agile way.”

Ireland has one of the highest numbers of established entrepreneurs per capita across the OECD, he added.

It is envisaged that the report, which is aimed at academics as well as business leaders, will play a role in the IDA’s current marketing campaign, “Innovation – It’s In Our Nature”, which aims to promote Ireland as a hub of innovation and managerial talent.

The report also gives a quantitative basis to one of the central themes to emerge from last September’s Farmleigh forum – that there is a unique “Irishness” that can be harnessed and used to foster economic growth.