Who Learns and What They Learn: Evidence from an Action-Based Entrepreneurship Training Program

Abstract

Scholars highlight that learning outcomes of entrepreneurship training might not be homogeneous for all participants and call for studies on contextual factors that might affect such outcomes. We respond to the call and explore the role of two contextual factors, team dynamics and the learning environment, on two important learning outcomes that are precursors of entrepreneurial engagement – entrepreneurial readiness and knowledge readiness. Drawing from literature on psychological safety and status differences, we hypothesize the differences in learning outcomes of graduate students and faculty members who participated in action-based technology entrepreneurship program as part of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) I-Corps program. The findings suggest that positive team dynamics increase entrepreneurial readiness for both types of trainees, but increases knowledge readiness of only graduate students, suggesting differential importance of team-level factors. The findings for learning environment are more complex. While a negative learning environment was not significantly associated with entrepreneurial or knowledge readiness for either trainee type, a positive learning environment was a significant predictor of both entrepreneurial and knowledge readiness for faculty but was only a significant predictor for knowledge readiness among graduate students. This study contributes to the entrepreneurship training literature by showing the impact of team and broader contextual level factors on training efficacy. The findings have implications for both academic and corporate trainers who design action-learning programs.