A Case of Mistaken (Role) Identity?: Envisioning Entrepreneurial Role Demands
11 Pages Posted: 6 Jul 2008
Date Written: July 3, 2008
Abstract
We have learned that understanding perceptions plays a critical role in understanding entrepreneurial activity (Shaver & Scott, 1991). There is another perception that we have yet to address in great depth: The entrepreneur's perception that "I am an entrepreneur." In many career fields, individuals may have a limited, even distorted mental model of what that career entails in terms of role demands. For example, education students might choose whether or not to be a kindergarten teacher based on their mental model of the prototypical (or the optimal) kindergarten teacher. As that mental prototype is usually based on vague memories of one's own kindergarten teacher it is at best too narrow and at worst quite distorted. Potential entrepreneurs may be deterred or attracted to entrepreneurship from similar mental prototyping, a cognitive phenomenon related to categorization (Jelinek & Litterer 1995; Krueger & Hamilton 1996).
Keywords: role identity, mental prototyping, entrepreneurial intentions, mental models
JEL Classification: M13
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
By Helle Neergaard and Norris F. Krueger
-
By Norris F. Krueger and Jill Kickul
-
Matching Owner-Managers' Cognitive Style and Organizational Demands in Family Firms
By Keith H. Brigham, Ritch Sorenson, ...