Gendered impact of training on entrepreneurial self-efficacy: a longitudinal study of nascent entrepreneurs

Abstract

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) is a central concept for understanding the entrepreneurial process. Studies show that ESE differs between men and women. Does training have a gender-specific effect on ESE? To answer this question, we followed 238 nascent entrepreneurs who received 330 hours of training and we measured their level of ESE before training, six months after the initial assessment, then 6 and 12 months after that (final sample of 42). We found that gender had a significant effect on ESE change throughout the periods. Women had lower levels of ESE than men before training, but this difference was no longer significant after. We also found a quadratic effect of gender: while ESE was boosted in women after training, this effect did not remain constant in the ensuing periods. For men, we found the opposite quadratic effect: training slightly reduced their ESE, and the level increased slightly in the ensuing periods. For both genders, training appears to have had a short-term effect on their ESE. This highlights the necessity to study changes in ESE from a long-term perspective, and also the need to investigate how training or other support can lead to ESE improvement for female entrepreneurs.

RÉSUMÉ

L’auto-efficacité auto-entrepreneuriale (AEE) est un concept central pour comprendre le processus entrepreneurial. Des études montrent que l’AEE diffère entre les hommes et les femmes. La formation a-t-elle un effet spécifique au sexe sur l’AAE ? Afin de répondre à cette question, nous avons suivi 238 entrepreneurs naissants ayant bénéficié de 330 heures de formation, et nous avons mesuré leur niveau d’AAE avant la formation, six mois après la première évaluation, puis 6 et 12 mois après (échantillon final de 42). Nous avons constaté que le genre avait un effet significatif sur la modification de l’AAE tout au long de ces périodes. Les femmes avaient des niveaux d’AAE plus faibles que ceux des hommes avant la formation, mais cette différence n’a plus été significative par la suite. Nous avons également constaté un effet quadratique du genre : si l’AAE a été stimulé chez les femmes après la formation, cet effet n’est pas resté constant au cours des périodes suivantes. Concernant les hommes, nous avons constaté l’effet quadratique inverse : la formation a légèrement réduit leur AAE, et le niveau a légèrement augmenté dans les périodes qui ont suivi. Pour les deux genres, la formation semble avoir eu un effet à court terme sur l’AAE. Cela souligne la nécessité d’étudier les modifications de l’AAE dans une perspective à long terme, ainsi que celle d’étudier comment la formation ou d’autres formes de soutien peuvent conduire à une amélioration de l’AAE chez les femmes entrepreneurs.

Keywords:

• Gender
• entrepreneurial self-efficacy
• training

MOTS-CLÉS::

• Genre
• Auto-efficacité entrepreneuriale
• Formation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Now renamed School Service Centers.

2 https://www.entrepreneuriat-quebec.com/

3 This is based on a list of 10 reasons included in the questionnaire. More information available upon request.

4 Many people started, but terminated after only few questions.

5 All of our comparison analyses were below the p ≤ 0.10 threshold and none were significant.

6 As we have a small sample, we used the p ≤ 0.10 level.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Étienne St-Jean

Étienne St-Jean, PhD, is Full Professor of entrepreneurship at the Université du Québec at Trois-Rivières. He holds the Canada Research Chair on Entrepreneurial Career and he is a regular member of the Research Institute on SMEs at the same university. He is responsible for Quebec (Canada team) for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, the largest survey on the attitudes, aspirations and entrepreneurial activities of citizens of several countries. His work focuses on entrepreneurial intention and business creation process, training, support and development of entrepreneurs through mentoring and entrepreneurship as a specific career

Maripier Tremblay

Maripier Tremblay, DBA, is Full Professor of entrepreneurship at Université Laval (Québec, Canada). She holds the Chair in educational leadership on entrepreneurial spirit and entrepreneurship. Her research interests include entrepreneurship education, training and support, as well as sustainable entrepreneurship.

Cécile Fonrouge

Cécile Fonrouge, PhD, is the head of the Research Institute on SMEs at UQTR (Institut de Recherche sur les PME-InRPME). She has published on cognition, new venture strategies, networking, innovation, family firms, luxury and how an entrepreneur could raise funds by networking in several academic journals as Small Business Economics, Revue Française de Gestion, Innovations, Management International, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and innovation Management and wrote several book chapters.

Rahma Chouchane

Rahma Chouchane, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Canada Research Chair on Entrepreneurial Career at the Université du Quebec at Trois-Rivières, specializing in psychological health at work and intrapreneurship. Holder of a Ph.D. in management (University of Tunis El Manar), her dissertation research sits at the intersection of organizational behavior and intrapreneurship and, in part, is geared towards gaining a better understanding of self-efficacy as a boundary motivational condition in the intrapreneurial process.