Deliberate Practice of Entrepreneurial Learning and Self-Efficacy: The Moderating Effect of Entrepreneurial Parental Environment as Role Modeling

This study explores the relationship between intense exposure to entrepreneurship education and training (EET), defined as the deliberate practice of entrepreneurial learning, and self-efficacy, for entrepreneurs in the post-creation stage. When analyzing this relationship, we account for individuals’ entrepreneurial experience gained through parental ties with entrepreneurs as a moderating variable. In doing so, our research aims to contribute to the literature on the relationship between EET and entrepreneurial self-efficacy in several ways. First,we address the relationship by bridging the gap between intention and action in the context of actual entrepreneurs engaged in the early stages of their new ventures. In doing so and drawing on the theory of planned behavior, we complement the important stream of research on entrepreneurial intention by highlighting antecedents of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in the post-creation stage. Second, when analyzing the relationship between EET and self-efficacy for actual entrepreneurs, we approach EET as a deliberate practice of voluntary exposure to new entrepreneurial knowledge. Third, we provide new insights into the EET–self-efficacy relationship by exploring the moderating effect of entrepreneurial vicarious learning and, more specifically, the individual’s embeddedness in an entrepreneurial parental environment. Finally, drawing from Kirkpatrick’s (1959a, b, 1960a, b, 1996) reference framework on training and education evaluation, we provide empirical observations of EET outcomes evaluated in the later (“behavior” and “results”) stages.