The other side of the same coin - How communal beliefs about entrepreneurship influence attitudes toward entrepreneurship

摘要

Drawing on the information processing perspective, this paper investigates how young adults' attitude toward entrepreneurship is shaped by their beliefs about the role and activities of entrepreneurs. Our first study (N = 129) reveals that young adults hold a biased set of beliefs. They believe that entrepreneurship affords agentic aspects (e.g., achievement, power, excitement), but significantly less believe in communal aspects which are, however, equally integral to entrepreneurship (e.g., interaction, pro-social behavior). In a subsequent experimental vignette study (N = 389), we show, that communicating the communal nature of entrepreneurship, specifically the pro-social aspects, improves both men's and women's attitude toward entrepreneurship. Overall, our research suggests that portrayals of occupations shape young adults' beliefs about career options and thereby influence their attitude toward respective careers.