Resumo

Salhi and Jemmali (2018) consider it important that students are interested in entrepreneurship as an option not only for career but for life. Let them adopt entrepreneurship with their hearts and minds (Salhi & Jemmali, 2018). This entrepreneurial training contributes not only to the formation of companies, but also to the creation of jobs and innovation in organizations (LIMA et al., 2015). If this behavior contributes to socioeconomic development, studying and analyzing the individual in order to promote and disseminate this behavior becomes a key factor in understanding this phenomenon.

The traditional methods of evaluation of the entrepreneurial behavior carry a degree of uncertainty and significant subjectivity with several uncontrollable independent variables. Facing this lacun, the fuzzy methods can be a tool that contributes to the understanding of the degree of pertinence regarding the entrepreneurial behavior. This is because these methods provide a simple way to arrive at a definitive conclusion based on vague, ambiguous and inaccurate information. On this, the objective of this study was to develop a fuzzy model for measuring entrepreneurial behavior.

The theoretical grounding considered the constructs of entrepreneurial behavior anchored in the behavioral theory of McClelland (Mansfield et al., 1987) and entrepreneurial intention of Liñán and Chen (2009).

The study is classified as applied, quantitative, descriptive and exploratory. For the collection of data two validated instruments were used. The application of the instruments occurred in the Federal University of Santa Maria during the course of 2018. For the treatment of the data collected, statistical tests were performed, at which time the data were analyzed based on the models proposed by Mansfield et al. (1987) and Liñán and Chen (2009). From the calculation of the indicators (characteristics and intention), the premises for the construction of the fuzzy model were elaborated.

Initially the data analysis considered the statistic for the validated models, then the fuzzy model was developed in Matlab. The fuzzy model was presented to measure the entrepreneurial behavior contemplating entrepreneurial behavioral characteristics and entrepreneurial intention. The developed model was adequate to carry out the proposed measurement.

The fuzzy measurement model was tested and proved to be valid for the measurement of entrepreneurial behavior. From the results, one can observe the advantage of using fuzzy logic, which was more detailed compared to the traditional methods of measuring entrepreneurial behavior, so it is understood that this developed model can be more reliable. The fuzzy model used linguistic variables and the understanding in the modeling of the premises which facilitated the understanding of the results, differently from the traditionally adopted average.

Liñán, F. & Chen, Y. (2009). Development and cross-cultural application of a specific instrument to measure entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, v. 33, n. 3, p. 593-617. Mansfield, R. S., McClelland, D. C., Spencer, J. L. M. & Santiago, J. (1987). The identification and assessment of competencies and other personal characteristics of entrepreneurs in developing countries. Final report. McBer and Compay. Massachusetts. McClelland, D. C. (1987). Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs. The Journal or Creative Behavior, v. 21, n. 3. p. 219-233.