Principal Topic

If entrepreneurs are “made,” not “born,” then it would be quite useful to understand the cognitive processes by which entrepreneurs are “made.” This truism would suggest that the process of becoming entrepreneurial would demonstrate significant change in subjects’ attitudes and intentions toward entrepreneurship along with differences in other measures of cognitive phenomena. In short, do they learn to “think entrepreneurially”?

Research suggests that life, family and work experiences change us, although the impact of these experiences are partly hostage to how we respond personally to those experiences. Entrepreneurship is no different. Direct experience and vicarious exposure can influence entrepreneurial intentions and attitudes. Instruction should provide a meaningful test of whether a meaningful exposure to entrepreneurship (albeit short-term) actually changes entrepreneurial thinking and how it does so (e.g., change in self-efficacy? Scripts? Opportunity perceptions?)

Method

In a pre/post design we sampled two groups, collecting data before and after entrepreneurship training. We measured: (1) Entrepreneurial intentions and their known antecedents (perceived feasibility and desirability) (2) Past experiences related to entrepreneurship (e.g., “Did you grow up in a family firm?”); critical attitude measures associated with entrepreneurial activity, including scales analogous to the core dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation: Measures of risk-acceptance, innovativeness and proactiveness, plus Seligman’s measure of Learned Optimism and a measure of Future Orientation. (3) Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy: DeNoble, et al.’s Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy plus a secondary battery of additional items that measure self-efficacy at entrepreneurial and managerial tasks, (4) Expert versus novice cognitive script (courtesy of Ronald Mitchell).

Results and Implications

The impact of training did affect the attitudes and intentions of subjects engaged in entrepreneurship training, especially relative to the control group. That is, as expected, trainees’ attitudes changed over the three-month time interval, exhibiting more entrepreneurial attitudes, higher entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and a cognitive script closer to “expert” than to “novice.” That is, entrepreneurial training does help many trainees to be better at “thinking entrepreneurially.” That isn’t terribly new, but this study takes a small step toward a more fine-grained understanding of the evolution of entrepreneurial thinking.

CONTACT: Norris Krueger, Faculty of Entrepreneurship, College of Business, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725-1625; (T) 208-426-3573; nkrueger@boisestate.edu