Students's Entrepreneurial Optimism, Overconfidence and Entrepreneurial Intentions
(2013) ECSB Entrepreneurship Education Conference — Location: Aarhus (Denmark) (29.May.2013)
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- Abstract
- Objectives: Existing research evidence shows that optimism and overconfidence are common among university students. While entrepreneurial activity requires a certain degree of confidence and motivation, it can be less successful or even lead to failure when optimism and confidence are too high. In this paper we examine the perceptual differences between students and faculty regarding (a) the degree to which university students are optimistic about the outcomes they expect from an entrepreneurial career and (b) overconfident in their perceptions of barriers to entrepreneurship. Approach: Our sample includes 1974 students and 405 faculty from five nations. First, we applied a principal component factor analysis in order to identify different groups of expected outcomes and perceived barriers both for the student and for the faculty samples. Next, we created four new variables: two related to student expected outcomes and two related to student expected barriers. Then, we compared the students’ value variables to the faculty value variables to differentiate between two student groups” (1) students ranking positive outcomes as more important and barriers as less important compared to faculty and (2) students ranking positive outcomes as less important and barriers as more important compared to faculty. In the last step, we appeal a set of t-tests. Results: Findings suggest that, overall, students are more optimistic than their faculty but not more confident. The students who are more optimistic and more confident than their faculty, also perceive themselves to be more entrepreneurial and have stronger intentions to pursue an entrepreneurial career compared to their less optimistic and/or confident peers. Implications-Value: Our results indicate that entrepreneurship education programs are effective in terms of sensitizing students to the possible barriers to entrepreneurship. Students, however, appear to be overly optimistic regarding the outcomes associated with an entrepreneurial career. This finding indicates that faculty in general, and entrepreneurship faculty in particular, would need to sensitize their students to the reality of being an entrepreneur, which can present significant challenges. This further stressed the importance of faculty actively acting to temper students’ expectations regarding an entrepreneurial career. This undoubtedly represents a challenge, given that faculty would want to temper student attitudes without quenching their entrepreneurial aspirations all together. Students’ excessive optimism and overconfidence could possibly be reduced through interactions with actual entrepreneurs who share from their experience, not just the advantages and benefits of an entrepreneurial career, but also the challenges and hardships in encompasses.
- Affiliations
Louvain School of Management Strategy and Organisation Louvain School of Management Strategy and Organisation
Citations
Janssen, F., Giacomin, O., & Shinnar, R. (2013). Students’s Entrepreneurial Optimism, Overconfidence and Entrepreneurial Intentions. ECSB Entrepreneurship Education Conference, Aarhus (Denmark). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/205123