Do you think you have an “entrepreneurial instinct”? Explorers do

When participants in the Santander X Explorer programme complete the 12-week experience, they answer a questionnaire that allows them (and us) to assess how they perceive their entrepreneurial skills. We pay special attention to those highlighted in the EntreComp framework, as we're keen to understand which ones they see as strengths or weaknesses.

Among these competencies is the ability to identify opportunities, which the respondents (2,000 people — a sample of Explorers from various universities across the 12 countries in the programme) rate from 1 (very low or no self-perceived ability) to 5 (very high). We have collected the responses from January 2022 to December 2024, six editions of the programme. And these are the results:

85.7% of respondents believe they have a strong ability to identify opportunities

We define opportunity identification as:

• Recognise opportunities in the environment (social, cultural and economic).
• Detect challenges that can be transformed into entrepreneurial ideas.
• Assessing the value of an opportunity to determine its potential impact.
• Analysing the context to seize trends and anticipate changes.

With this in mind, 85.7% of Explorers rated themselves with a 4 or 5 (out of 5, let’s not forget) by the end of the programme — indicating high confidence in this ability. Only 0.6% gave themselves a 1.

More than half of Santander X Explorer participants — 51.7% — gave themselves the highest possible score when evaluating their ability to spot entrepreneurial opportunities.

Edition after edition, the perception is similar

Most participants consistently rate themselves highly, which explains why the overall average score is a notable 4.35. It’s also remarkable that in every edition, the percentage of participants rating themselves a 5 is around or above 50%. There is, however, a clear trend: those who take part in the autumn edition (September to December) tend to feel even more confident, as more than 55% choose the highest grade to rate themselves.

On the other hand, low scores (1 and 2) make up just 3.5% of the total. In fact, the percentage of participants who believe they have little or no ability to spot opportunities only exceeded 1% in September 2023.

Which countries feel they have the strongest “entrepreneurial instinct”?

Based on the data, here’s the top five — combining scores of 4 and 5:

1. Peru (91.4%)
2. Colombia (90.7%)
3. Mexico (89.8%)
4. Chile (87.3%)
5. Brazil (81.7%)

In conclusion...

After analysing the data in the report, we confirm that the Santander X Explorer programme consolidates participants' confidence in their ability to identify opportunities to create value. Now it is time to continue working to ensure that these results are maintained and even improved.

If you also want to develop this side of your entrepreneurial mindset, don’t think twice! Pre-register for Santander X Explorer and we’ll let you know when the next call opens (spoiler: very soon). Ready to tell us about your project?

Photo by Christian Rucinski on Unsplash.