Mentor functions for novice entrepreneurs

Abstract

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