From entrepreneurial experience to expertise: A self-regulated learning perspective

ABSTRACT

Entrepreneurial experience alone may not necessarily guarantee venture success. Some entrepreneurs develop into experts through learning from their experiences, whereas others fail to do so. To explain the missing link between experience and expertise, we introduce a social-cognitive model of self-regulated entrepreneurial learning (SREL) to demonstrate how entrepreneurial expertise can be systematically developed to increase the probability of entrepreneurial success. We identify key self-regulatory learning processes essential to entrepreneurial learning by developing propositions and related practice-oriented applications of the SREL model for entrepreneurs.

KEYWORDS:

• Social cognition
• entrepreneurial learning
• self-regulation

Notes

¹ Please note that entrepreneurial success within the context of this paper is not exclusively related to business success. It may also include other (subjective) determinants of success that are formed by the entrepreneur (e.g., autonomy).