Empirical Evidence Toward the Development of a Measure of Entrepreneurial Collective Efficacy

Abstract

Research suggests that entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), one’s confidence in successfully starting and running a new venture, is an important indicator of one’s intention to start an entrepreneurial venture. Since entrepreneurial teams are well documented reality of the current economic environment, entrepreneurial collective efficacy (ECE) becomes a key variable for the study of entrepreneurship. While a small but growing body of organizational research has started examining collective efficacy, very little is known about its role in entrepreneurship. The current study offers a conceptualization of entrepreneurial collective efficacy and provides a reliable and valid team-level measure. In addition, this study examines important entrepreneurial team-level variables for their contribution toward building entrepreneurial collectively efficacy. Data for this study came from 386 graduating BBA and MBA students representing 90 teams engaged in a semester long venture startup project. Results show that ECE ...