Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to measure the impact of positive and negative same-gender fictional role models on students' self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. Design/methodology/approach -The authors conducted an experimental research on 276 French students. Structural equation modeling techniques were employed to measure role model identification, attitude toward the role model, emotional arousal, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. Findings -Exposure to fictional role models favorably impacts self-efficacy and behavioral intentions if students identify with role models, hold favorable attitudes toward the message, and experience positive emotional arousal. Successful role models reinforce role model identification and generate favorable attitudes toward the message, thus enhancing self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. Unsuccessful entrepreneurial role models also favorably reinforce the relationship between self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. Message framing and role models' gender exert a moderating effect on these results. Practical implications -Several implications for entrepreneurship education are discussed. The predominance of masculine models in entrepreneurship discourse should be inverted in the agenda of entrepreneurship education. The authors question the overall predominance of positive models in entrepreneurial education and more deeply explore the learning value of negative models. Originality/value -Entrepreneurial literature mainly focuses on mastery experience and positive real-life role models as antecedents of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Negative role models are rarely examined as potential favorable sources of self-efficacy beliefs, and little is known about the impact of emotional arousal, another source of self-efficacy beliefs, as theorized by Bandura.

International audienceThis article demonstrates that the impact of role models (RMs) on students’ self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention is moderated by their entrepreneurial experience and personality variables such as self-esteem and locus of control. 276 students enrolled in an entrepreneurship education programs (EEPs) were exposed to either a positive or a negative sensitisation message by alumni who became entrepreneurs to test its impact on the students’ self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. Findings indicate that students with entrepreneurial experience, high self-esteem and internal locus of control are less impacted by entrepreneurial role models. We discuss the relevance and effectiveness of role models in EEPs

À partir d’une modélisation structurelle, cette recherche expérimentale menée sur 276 étudiants permet de mesurer l’impact des modèles de rôles entrepreneuriaux sur leur auto-efficacité et leur intention de créer une entreprise. Nos résultats confirment que l’exposition des participants au message d’un ancien étudiant ayant réussi dans sa carrière entrepreneuriale engendre un éveil émotionnel positif et une attitude favorable envers le message, améliorant l’auto-efficacité et l’intention entrepreneuriale des participants. Pour certains participants, les modèles d’échec sont également efficaces d’un point de vue persuasif, renforçant la relation entre auto-efficacité et intention entrepreneuriale. Par ailleurs, cette recherche démontre que le cadrage du message et l’encouragement verbal d’un membre de l’équipe pédagogique avant l’exposition au message exercent un effet modérateur et parfois paradoxal sur ces résultats selon le sexe de l’étudiant. Nous discutons ces effets en relativisant l’intervention des membres de l’équipe pédagogique dans l’impact des modèles de rôles entrepreneuriaux.

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The objective of this article is to estimate the spatial structure of the collective economic conceptualization of strategic actions by cidermakers in Québec. It employs group concept mapping, a mixed methods–based approach. Given the limited research on the economic conceptualization of horizontal coordination for guiding collective strategic action orientations, this contribution is threefold: methodological, empirical, and practical. Methodologically, the results show the perspective of horizontally coordinated cidermakers and use statistical estimates and retroduction as an inference mode to produce and structure the concept map. Empirically, the spatial economic conceptualization consists of a concept map with seven strategic action clusters organized around the notions of product supply and demand and highlights tensions between individual and collective strategic actions. Practically, measures of relative importance and relative feasibility are obtained for each cluster on the map, and implications are discussed. (JEL Classifications: D02, L23, L26, L66, Q18)