Author(s): Ahmed Al-Hammadi, Samer Ali Al-Shami, Safiah Sidek
Current empirical work that investigates youth entrepreneurship has provided new insights into the development processes that define the emergence of an entrepreneurial mindset among the youth. However, the study that emphasizes the creation of entrepreneurial skills resulting from the interrelationship between biological-related factors and cognitive entrepreneurial factors, such as entrepreneurial alertness is still very limited. Accordingly, this research focuses on gaining an understanding of the role of entrepreneurial personality traits and entrepreneurial competencies on the improvement of entrepreneurial alertness and intention among youth in the UAE. Through 320 questionnaires were randomly collected from secondary students, who study in the Emirates national school, we find that entrepreneurial personality has a positive significant relationship with entrepreneurial knowledge, skills, and alertness, but no direct relationship with entrepreneurial intention. In addition, entrepreneurial competencies (knowledge and skills) have a direct positive relationship with entrepreneurial alertness and intention and it mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial personalities and their alertness as well as intention. The finding of this research brought a new insight to the body of knowledge by providing a model that improves youth entrepreneurial alertness and intention at the school level through improving their personalities and competencies, which still forms a gap.