Success factors determination for entrepreneurs in Santa Catarina by using neural networks

The entrepreneurs has a fundamental role in the success of an undertaking. Besides the features and attributes of their personality, the attitude they take has an important influence in the undertaking success. This paper presents the neural networks utilization as a tool directed to investigate the existence of patterns for successful entrepreneurs defined according to a set of features. The use of neural networks makes possible the classification and recognition of patterns associated to the entrepreneurs success or failure. From real data about entrepreneurs in Santa Catarina State, a set of LVQ neural network architectures is tested in order to establish a classification model of successful entrepreneurs. The creation of profiles which allow relevant feature evaluation in the identification of a successful entrepreneur is also discussed.