Evaluation of entrepreneurial support projects by using IFS type-2 fuzzy sets

Abstract

Entrepreneurial activities are essential for increasing a nation’s wealth. Successful innovations initiated by the entrepreneurial ventures/startups may improve life quality, create new business areas and decrease the unemployment rate. Therefore, many countries provide various supports including financial support to entrepreneurial companies or start-ups. The selection of the companies that are going to be supported is a laborious process that includes uncertainty and imprecision. Not only the tangible factors such as technical capacity but also the soft factors such as the leadership skills of the management team should be considered in this process. Experience, funding methods of the business, business networking, business plans, and marketing strategies are the factors that can be considered for the evaluation of entrepreneurial projects. For the funding type, the external and personal investment can be regarded as while under the business plan: utilizing business networking, utilizing family for advice, utilizing friends for advice, and utilizing the internet as a source of information can be considered. In this study, IFS Type-2 fuzzy sets are utilized for the evaluation of entrepreneurial support.