Developing Attitudes Toward an Entrepreneurial Career Through Mentoring

Abstract

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.

Peer Mentoring in Engineering Entrepreneurship: A Learning Environment for Women Students

“…Another approach to increasing ESE is through mentoring. In their study of 360 novice entrepreneurs, St-Jean and Mathieu [19] found that mentoring had a direct effect on ESE, mediating the relationship between satisfaction and intention to stay in the profession; furthermore, St-Jean [18] found that mentoring "maximizes the learning" for novice entrepreneurs, primarily through career-related mentoring functions.…”

Garden of mentorig: revisiting mentoring in entrepreneurial sense

“…It is about helping people to make their own choices, thus it is not dictating what to do or how to do (Kay and Hinds,2009:5). It is a form of practice that makes people questioning what, how, why, when and with whom they are doing, therefore allow people to make informed choices and persevere when faced with difficulties (St-Jean and Mathieu, 2015). As the important training and development tool for upward progression, mentoring is not a new concept (Hunt and Micheal,1983).…”

“…They are also skilled at resolving personal and professional dilemmas by provoking self-questioning (St-Jean and Mathieu,2015). Despite their important functions in entrepreneurial process, their multi-faceted development effect for new-start entrepreneurs or mentee/protégé is not highly discussed topic in the entrepreneurship literature to the best of our knowledge (St-Jean and Mathieu, 2015;St-Jean and Audet,2009). However, mentoring programs provided under both several private and public initiatives are increasingly on the agenda of fostering entrepreneurship.…”

“…Therefore, new area for cultivation in the garden of mentoring has emerged: Entrepreneurial Mentoring. Although, its multi-faceted development effect for new ventures is accepted, mentoring is not highly discussed topic in entrepreneurship literature to the best of our knowledge Mathieu, 2015, St-Jean and Audet,2009). Hence, this conceptual study mainly deals with definitional issues, roots of mentoring and how mentoring evolves from career development towards entrepreneurial development perspective.…”

Who Needs Entrepreneurial Role Models? Driving Forces of Students’ Cyber-Entrepreneurial Career Intention

“…Fayolle et al (2006) have stated that EI becomes stronger when self-efficacy is enhanced by the presence of ERMs. St-Jean and Mathieu (2015), however, observed that mentoring appears to have a direct negative effect on the intension (to stay in the profession) of novice entrepreneurs; and suggested that mentoring should come earlier in the entrepreneurial process.…”