دانلود رایگان مقاله شکل گیری هویت کارآفرینی در طول تجربیات اولیه کارآفرینی

ABSTRACT

The impact of a negative initial entrepreneurship experience may inhibit the emergence of an entrepreneurial identity and shut down a subsequent entrepreneurial career. Testing theories of identity development usually involve complex longitudinal studies, but the testing may be facilitated through the use of business simulation gaming. Using a quasi-experimental research design, the paper explores how entrepreneurial micro-identity is formed among business undergraduates during the initial entrepreneurial experience. In doing so, the research investigates the impact of cognitive dissonance on the salience of the emerging identity and the influence of key existing identities. The paper accomplishes this using a novel dataset derived from a business simulation game. We argue that the simulation offers a valuable resource to test theories within shortened timescales. The paper contributes to the field by problematizing the initial entrepreneurial experience of undergraduate students and supports the case for using simulation gaming as a method to support theory testing.

6. Conclusion

This paper explored the impact of the initial entrepreneurial experience on the formation of entrepreneurial micro-identity. By utilizing a robust quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test design with treatment and control groups, we found that the difference between observed and experienced behaviors may lead to a cognitive dissonance that reduces the salience of the emergent entrepreneurial micro-identity. In turn, gender and pre-existing entrepreneurial role models influence this. This effect is magnified in the case of role models by performance feedback. The findings of the research clearly have important implications for entrepreneurship and enterprise education, since they show that an initial entrepreneurial experience within an educational context may have a negative impact on the salience of the forming an entrepreneurial identity. This finding is magnified for those students with a role model, which suggests the importance of the initial experience as a foundation for entrepreneurial development. Knowledge of this process means that expectations may be managed by educators. Scholars should embrace the dissonance inherent where observed and experienced entrepreneurial behaviors meet. The alternative would involve presenting an unrealistic experience of entrepreneurship, in which enterprise is expressed through self-made heroic entrepreneurs and successful independent businesses (Wright, 2015); hence, sacrificing verisimilitude and perpetuating false images of entrepreneurship may result from purely observed behaviors. By using a novel longitudinal data-set derived from a business simulation, the research has also provided evidence for the veracity of using simulation data to test entrepreneurial theory. Whilst such an approach has been historically championed (Gaglio, 2004; Lant & Mezias, 1990), there is little evidence of its uptake. We hope this paper supports an increase in the use of simulation as a method to advance the entrepreneurship field. With respect to limitations, evidence suggests that effects of entrepreneurial activity on performance vary by sector (Carey & Matlay, 2010), and the entrepreneurial experience shared in this research is a simulation set in the context of a small manufacturing company. The use of simulation and its sector orientation introduce variation. As such, further research should be conducted to establish whether similar results are found during the early stage when using other types of experiential learning intervention, such as venture creation and student consultancy activity.