Mentor functions for novice entrepreneurs

In the past few years, we have witnessed the birth of new mentoring programs, which consist in twining a novice entrepreneur with an experienced entrepreneur (also known as business mentoring). The literature on mentoring in large organization (where the protégé is an employee in the hierarchy) highlights that the mentor exerts three main categories of functions: psychological, career-related, and role model. This research aims to explore and to validate mentor functions for novice entrepreneurs. At first, a qualitative analysis based on focus groups including 51 mentees and 8 mentors was carried out. The theoretical proposal was then validated by a group of three experts in business mentoring. Finally, confirmatory factor analyses using LISREL were carried out on a sample of 360 mentees taking part in the mentoring program of the Fondation de l'entrepreneurship network, an organization which has twined more than 3500 novice entrepreneurs since the year 2000. The analyses confirm four psychological functions (reflector, reassurance, motivation, and confidant), four entrepreneurial career-related functions (integration, information support, confrontation, and guide) and a role model function. These results are useful to raise the awareness of volunteer mentors about functions they may likely exert when they are twined with novice entrepreneurs. © 2011 by the DreamCatchers Group, LLC, Arden NC, USA

Forestry Entrepreneurs — Research on High Performance Business Model

Over the last 30 years, the forest industry in Eastern Canada has undergone a radical transformation, from a model where larger forestry businesses operated their own production equipment to a model where harvesting, transport, and forest road construction are awarded to contractors. This change in strategy on part of the large corporations has created new start-up opportunities for many forest entrepreneurs. Their dependency on a single large client (wood buyer), however, could hinder entrepreneurial behavior. This study aims to examine the forest Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) population, identify the factors that stimulate their performance despite a business environment that may be deemed unfavorable, and draw an overall picture of the existing situation. An analysis of 535 questionnaires filled by forest machine owners suggests that SMEs with four employees or more show better performance results than those with three or fewer employees, considered very small enterprises (VSEs), essentially because these businesses are typically able to work more weeks in a year. Their managers use a significantly higher number of tools to measure performance and attribute greater importance to management duties. The results have enabled us to identify certain performance factors, but suggest that further research is needed to better understand the underlying causes of contract assignment and the relationships that develop between SME managers and large forest product companies

Wanting to change the world, is it too much of a good thing? How sustainable orientation shapes entrepreneurial behaviour

Purpose: When pursuing a sustainable orientation (SO), entrepreneurs can resolve environmental and social problems and act as change agents by pursuing opportunities related to market failures. While many studies focus on entrepreneurial intention, very few try to explain entrepreneurial behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the circumstances under which people could be led to become sustainable entrepreneurs. It examines the effect of SO, as well as the entrepreneurial motivation to change society as key drivers of entrepreneurial behaviour. Design/methodology/approach: The hypotheses were tested in three waves (six-month interval) on a sample of 197 university students that are neither entrepreneurs, nor involved in any entrepreneurial processes. The authors measured entrepreneurial behaviour as a dependent variable and used subjective norms towards entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial attitude as well as entrepreneurial motivation and SO as independent variables. Findings: Contrary to the expectations, sustainability orientation has a negative impact on entrepreneurial action. However, individuals who think that entrepreneurship can change society (instrumentality) exhibit higher entrepreneurial action. Furthermore, this belief positively moderates the negative impact of SO on entrepreneurial action. In other words, if someone thinks that entrepreneurship can change the world, not only he/she is more inclined to engage in entrepreneurial actions but their values of SO will not decrease their entrepreneurial action. Research limitations/implications: A longer timeframe of longitudinal research is needed to overcome the limitation regarding the assessment of entrepreneurial action. Practical implications: As a practical implication, educators who want to engage their institution as an engine of change towards sustainable development could highlight cases of sustainable businesses where profits, environmental and social issues were not neglected to improve the perceived feasibility and thus, entrepreneurial action. Originality/value: Results demonstrate the negative effect of SO on entrepreneurship as a career choice, but not for those who believe that they can change society through this mean. This research highlights the relevance of Socio Cognitive Career Theory in the field of entrepreneurship, especially the neglected effect of outcome expectations on entrepreneurship as a career choice. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

Entrepreneurial personality: the role of narcissism

Research has established a number of personality features and behaviours associated with business creation and success. The similarities between these traits and narcissism, a concept with roots in clinical psychology and psychiatry, led the authors to conduct this study, which proposes to measure whether entrepreneurs score higher on a narcissism scale than other vocational groups. The second goal of this study is to measure the role of narcissism on intention to start a business. Student entrepreneurs have been compared with non-entrepreneur students, city workers, and employees and managers from a branch of a large financial institution. Then, students filled out measures of general self-efficacy, locus of control and risk propensity as well as a narcissism scale. Results indicate that student entrepreneurs score significantly higher than all other vocational groups on a measure of narcissism. Results also indicate that narcissism is positively correlated with general self-efficacy, locus of control and risk propensity. Moreover, narcissism plays a significant role in explaining entrepreneurial intentions, even after controlling for self-efficacy, locus of control and risk propensity. Overall, these findings shed new light on the underlying personality traits of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial intentions and suggest new directions in the study of entrepreneurs' personality profile. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

Opportunity recognition for novice entrepreneurs: the benefits of learning with a mentor

In the past, it has been demonstrated that mentors can help novice entrepreneurs in the identification of business opportunities (Ozgen & Baron, 2007). However, the process by which mentoring enable a mentee in identifying new opportunities is not well understood. To better understand this process, we surveyed novice entrepreneurs that were supported by a mentor in the mentoring scheme developed by Fondation de l'entrepreneurship. Of these novice entrepreneurs, 360 mentees responded. We then proceeded with a hierarchical linear regression using the novice's perception in his capacity to identity new opportunities as a dependent variable. We found that age is having a negative influence on dependent variable whereas management experience is having a positive effect. The learning goal orientation variable (LGO) is having a positive influence on the dependent variable. Finally, we found that the more a mentee learn with his/her mentor, the more they trust their abilities in identifying opportunities. Our results showed that mentoring may be a good way to support novice entrepreneurs in the start-up process and also in the development of their SMEs

Les enjeux de l’aspirant repreneur : Le cas des PME de récolte forestière du Québec

Il existe au Québec comme ailleurs de bonnes raisons de s’inquiéter du retrait prochain des affaires d’un grand nombre de dirigeants de PME. La présente étude vise à documenter la situation dans l’industrie forestière de récolte en ce qui a trait à la présence d’aspirants repreneurs parmi les travailleurs forestiers. Nous nous intéressons plus particulièrement à la phase de préparation du repreneur, alors qu’il envisage de démarrer une entreprise, en hésitant toutefois entre le repreneuriat ou le démarrage « classique ». Les résultats montrent que pour l’instant, le plus grand frein au repreneuriat est la situation économique précaire de l’industrie. Cette situation incite les aspirants repreneurs à remettre à plus tard leur projet et rend aussi plus difficile son financement. Cette deuxième barrière est pratiquement insurmontable vu le montant élevé nécessaire pour financer l’acquisition d’une entreprise de récolte ou les actifs requis pour en démarrer une. Par ailleurs, l’évaluation du prix à payer pour acheter une entreprise de récolte et l’accès à l’information sur les entreprises possiblement à vendre ne semblent pas causer de problèmes majeurs. En conclusion, il semble qu’à défaut de mettre en place des conditions gagnantes pouvant inciter les travailleurs forestiers démontrant un potentiel entrepreneurial à reprendre, ce sont vraisemblablement d’autres acteurs de l’industrie qui le feront.In Quebec, as elsewhere around the world, the imminent withdrawal from the business world of a great number of SME leaders is cause for concern. The present study aims to document the prevailing situation in the forest harvesting industry in regard to the presence, among current forest workers, of aspiring entrepreneurs willing to take over existing businesses. We particularly wish to examine the preparation phase of the aspiring entrepreneur, where hesitation between a new venture or a takeover is still present. Preliminary results show that the biggest obstacle to taking over an existing business is the industry’s precarious economic health, which forces aspiring entrepreneurs to postpone their project and makes it difficult to find adequate financing. This second barrier is practically insurmountable given the important amount needed to finance the acquisition of a harvesting business or the assets needed to start one. Moreover, assessing a harvesting business’ value and having access to information concerning businesses for sale do not seem to cause major problems. In conclusion, it would seem that failing the implementation of favourable conditions encouraging forest workers with entrepreneurial potential to take over existing businesses, other industry stakeholders will likely step in to take them over.En Québec, como en otras partes, hay buenas razones de preocuparse por el retiro próximo del mundo de los negocios de un número importante de empresarios de PyME.El presente estudio busca documentar la situación que existe en la industria forestal de cosecha en cuanto a la presencia de aspirantes-compradores de empresas existentes entre los trabajadores forestales. Nos enfocamos particularmente sobre la fase de preparación del aspirante-comprador, durante la cual piensa tener una empresa, pero duda cual pueda ser la mejor opción : la compra de una empresa existente o el arranque « clásico » de una nueva empresa.Los resultados demuestran que, por el momento, el mayor freno a la compra de una empresa existente es la precaria situación económica de la industria. Esta situación incita los aspirantes-compradores a aplazar sus proyectos y también hace más difícil su financiamiento. Esta segunda barrera es prácticamente infranqueable en razón del elevado monto que se necesita para financiar la adquisición de una empresa forestal de cosecha o de los activos necesarios para poner en marcha una nueva.De otra parte, la evaluación del precio de compra de una empresa de cosecha y el acceso a la información sobre las empresas posiblemente en venta no parecen causar un problema mayor.En conclusión, todo parece indicar que si no se establecen condiciones ganadoras que puedan incitar los trabajadores forestales que demuestran un potencial empresarial a comprar las empresas existentes, otros actores de la industria lo harán.In Quebec wie andernorts existieren gute Gründe, sich über die Situation der Nachfolgeregelung in KMU zu besorgen. Vorliegender Bericht dokumentiert die Situation in der Forstwirtschaft und die Übernahmeambitionen von Mitarbeitern in Forstbetrieben. Wir untersuchen dabei in besonderem Masse die Vorbereitungsphase des « Nachfolgers », der noch zwischen einer Übernahme und einer Neugründung zögert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen auf, dass der grösste Hinderungsgrund die prekäre wirtschaftliche Lage der Branche ist. Die problematische Lage zwingt Nachfolger dazu, ihr Projekt aufzuschieben und erschwert im weiteren die Finanzierung. Die Finanzierung, das zweite Hindernis, ist sozusagen unüberwindbar. Zu grosse Beträge müssten aufgewendet werden, um eine Übernahme oder Neugründung zu finanzieren. Die Verfügbarkeit von Informationen und die Bewertung von Unternehmen zur Übernahme stellt hingegen kaum ein Problem dar. Da die Rahmenbedingungen zu wenig gewinnversprechend aussehen, können die Forstmitarbeiter nicht zu unternehmerischen Verhalten angeregt werden. In die Lücke springen andere Akteure der Industrie

Developing attitudes toward an entrepreneurial career through mentoring: the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy

Mentoring is reputed to support the career choices and development of individuals in various contexts. This study is one of the few that investigates the effect of mentoring on career satisfaction and retention of novice entrepreneurs. We surveyed 360 novice entrepreneurs who had been supported by a mentor. Our analyses demonstrate the direct effect of mentoring on entrepreneurial self-efficacy, which mediates the relationship between satisfaction of being an entrepreneur and the intention of staying in the profession. Moreover, mentoring not only has an indirect effect on satisfaction; it seems to have a negative direct effect on intention. This result could possibly be due to the awareness of novices regarding the limitations of their initial business project. Given that entrepreneurs are closely tied to their business project, mentoring should come earlier in the entrepreneurial process in order to influence career satisfaction and retention of novice entrepreneur. © Curators of the University of Missouri 2015

Should Mentors of Entrepreneurs be Trained or their Experience is Enough?

Entrepreneurial mentoring is the support of novice entrepreneurs by experienced professionals in the business world. Despite this practice gaining popularity, a question remains: is it necessary for these organizations to train mentors or is the mentor’s experience sufficient? To answer this question, we analyzed the effect of the mentor’s training, as well as his/her profile in terms of experience, on the mentee’s degree of satisfaction and learning. Our results show that the more a mentor is trained, the more he/she develops relational competencies, thereby creating a favorable (trusting) environment and developing an appropriate mentoring style (maieutic), which allows the mentee to learn and become more autonomous. However, the mentor’s experience in entrepreneurship does not have an impact on the quality of the mentoring relationship, nor does it impact the novice learning. Our results also show that, contrary to our expectations, mentoring experience has a negative impact on most of the psychological functions of the mentor. We found that this negative effect is neutralized by continuous training of mentors. This suggests that entrepreneurship support organizations should implement specific training sessions for experienced mentors

Nurturing entrepreneurial learning through mentoring

This study highlights the factors that maximize the entrepreneur's learning that occurs throughout a mentoring relationship. To achieve this, we conducted a hierarchical regression analysis involving a sample of 314 mentees participating in a business-mentoring program. The findings show that to maximize the learning from this relationship, the entrepreneur must perceive similarity and mutual trust with his or her mentor. The data shows that in exerting psychological and career-related functions, the mentor enables the entrepreneur's learning. © 2016 World Scientific Publishing Company