Bayes business school and U. of St. Gallen, United Kingdom
Three experiments were conducted to investigate how perceived similarity and perceived attainability of an entrepreneurial exemplar influence students’ entrepreneurial inspiration. Participants watched a video of an entrepreneur framed as having the similar versus different collegiate background as them (experiment 1), or having the similar skillset versus different skillset as them (experiment 2), or having the attainable versus unattainable achievement perceived by participants (experiment 3). Both experiments 1 and 2 found that watching entrepreneurial video boosted students’ inspiration compared to the control condition, but no additional inspirational effect arose from high similarity. In experiment 3, results showed that perceived attainability of the exemplar’s success enhanced entrepreneurial inspiration. This study addresses the paucity of research on the mechanisms of how videos of entrepreneurs may enhance entrepreneurial inspiration and their influence on entrepreneurial intention. The findings also offers practical implications for entrepreneurship education by illustrating how instructors might prioritize portrayals of attainable entrepreneurial milestones rather than merely matching demographic or institutional characteristics.
