-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
1/21
Learning to Identify Opportunities: The ConcomitantInfluence of Affect, Cognition, and Motivation
Academy of Management- August 7, 2012
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
2/21
Introduction
Give a man a fish and hell eat for a day. Teach him
how to fish and hell eat forever. Chinese proverb
We know little about how and what entrepreneurs learn
Experience can lead to entrepreneurial knowledge Previous studies have emphasized an individualized view of
entrepreneurial learning
However, this is surprising given a wide range of evidence
indicating the importance to entrepreneurs of learning from others
Social learning may be of particular importance to entrepreneurs
This study integrates social constructivist and educational
psychology theories in exploring the entrepreneurial learning
process.
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
3/21
Theory
We look at entrepreneurial learning in a social context
Social constructivist theory explores how interactions
between experts and novices can lead to the
heightened development of knowledge Experts facilitate learning through situated modeling,
coaching, and fading
Extensive research in educational psychology indicate
there are primarily two factors that explain individual
learning: (1) ability and (2) willingness to learn
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
4/21
Conceptual Model
Display ofStructural
AlignmentProcesses
MetacognitiveAbility
Learning ofStructural
AlignmentProcesses
CreativeSelf-Efficacy
NegativeAffect
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
5/21
Structural Alignment
In making sense of new information, individuals compare new
stimuli to preexisting information
Structural alignment is a cognitive tool that people use to
compare and make sense of new things
Alignment proceeds at two levels: superficial and structural
alignment
Structural alignment is more involved in higher-order reasoning:
learning, new product ideation, problem solving
A study by Gregoire et al. (2010) found that entrepreneurs rely
largely upon structural alignment comparisons in recognizing
opportunities
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
6/21
Metacognition
An individuals ability to think about their own thinking
Allows individuals to consider alternate thinking
strategies for a given situation
Individuals with metacognitive abilities will be betterable to compare and contrast opportunity identification
strategies
These individuals are better equipped to understand
and make thinking changes necessary to develop
expertise in a given domain
However, negative affect may lead to cognitive
overload and inhibit learning
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
7/21
Conceptual Model
Display ofStructural
AlignmentProcesses
MetacognitiveAbility
Learning ofStructural
AlignmentProcesses
CreativeSelf-Efficacy
NegativeAffect
H1
H2
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
8/21
Creative Self-Efficacy
An individuals confidence in their ability to attain a high level of
performance in a specific task
Self-efficacy has been widely found to positively impact
performance through effort, persistence, and perseverance
Self-efficacy needs to be specific to the task
A few studies suggest that in certain contexts, high self-efficacy
can lead to diminished performance
Affect-as-information literature indicates that affect plays a role
in signaling whether one has exerted enough effort on a task
The motivational impact of negative affect is likely tied to an
individuals level of self-efficacy
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
9/21
Conceptual Model
Display ofStructural
AlignmentProcesses
MetacognitiveAbility
Learning ofStructural
AlignmentProcesses
CreativeSelf-Efficacy
NegativeAffect
H3
H4
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
10/21
Sample
Sample includes 124 entrepreneurial students and 124 experienced
entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs selected from OneSource database and participation in
Technology Park (IN, IL, IA, MI, WI)
Students drawn from entrepreneurship and strategy classes
Entrepreneur Demographics
Average Age 52 years old, Range 20-85 years old
Average Schooling 4 year college degree, Range from high school to
PhD An average of 2.8 ventures started per entrepreneur
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
11/21
Research Design
Student attemptsOR exercise on
own
Student attempts3 OR exercisesin collaboration
with entrepreneur
Student attemptsa final OR
exercise on theirown
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
12/21
Measures
Display of and Learning of Structural Alignment Processes Verbal protocol analysis
using coding structure consistent with Gregoire et al. (2010). 94% and 90%
agreement respectively between coders.
Metacognitive Ability We used the Measure of Adaptive Cognition (MAC), a 36 item
scale as developed by Haynie and Shepherd (2009). Cronbachs =.94
Creative Self-Efficacy A 3 item measure as developed by Tierney and Farmer(2002). Cronbachs =.83
Negative AffectWe used 10 items from Watson et al.s (1998) PANAS scale to
measure novice negative affect. Cronbachs =.86
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
13/21
Results
Display ofStructural
AlignmentProcesses
MetacognitiveAbility
Learning ofStructural
AlignmentProcesses
CreativeSelf-Efficacy
NegativeAffect
H3: Not supported
H4: Supported (p
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
14/21
Results
Model 3 Model 4
H1: EntAlignment*Metacognition -0.048 -0.111
H2: EntAlignment*Metacognition*
Negative Affect -0.355**
H3: EntAlignment*Self-Efficacy -0.135 -0.267*
H4: EntAlignment*Self-Efficacy*
Negative Affect0.351**
R2 0.308** 0.394**
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
15/21
Conclusions
Negative affect can have a powerful effect upon learning
In preparatory contexts (where one is learning a new skill),
low self-efficacy can lead to higher performance
Higher level information processing abilities (metacognition)
can actually impair an individuals ability to learn when
operating with negative affect
Negative affect should be looked at in tandem with cognitive
and motivational variables when exploring learning outcomes
Collaborative learning between individuals is a viable means of
transferring opportunity identification knowledge
Collaborative learning may be similarly effective in transferring
other types of entrepreneurial knowledge
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
16/21
Questions?
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
17/21
Expansion on Measures
Cohens k also calculated for each measure as shown below
Learning of Structural Alignment Processes Verbal protocol analysis using
coding structure consistent with Gregoire et al. (2010). 90% agreement
between coders. K =.905
Display of Structural Alignment Processes Verbal protocol analysis using
coding structure consistent with Gregoire et al. (2010). 94% agreement
between coders. K = .895
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
18/21
Controls
Positive affect
International origin of novice
Amount of conversation by entrepreneur
Novice post-interaction negative affect
Previous entrepreneurship experience of novices
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
19/21
Graph - Metacognition
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
20/21
Graph Creative Self-Efficacy
-
7/29/2019 Learning to Identify Opportunities - AOM 2012 Presentation
21/21
Full Results
Variables Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4Control VariablesInternational student -0.204* -0.220* -0.214* -0.247**Positive affect 0.055 0.086 0.089 0.124Total entrepreneur speak 0.036 -0.154 -0.161 -0.206*Post negative affect -0.120 -0.085 -0.044 -0.062Prior novice experience 0.178 0.210* 0.242** 0.221**Predictor VariablesEntrepreneur structural alignment 0.375** 0.327** 0.361**Negative affect -0.107 -0.124 -0.026Metacognitive ability 0.044 0.104 0.110Creative self-efficacy -0.192 -0.243* -0.271**Entrepreneur SA X Metacognitive ability -0.048 -0.111Entrepreneur SA X Negative affect -0.178 -0.011Entrepreneur SA X Creative SE -0.135 -0.267*Metacognitive ability X Negative affect 0.121 0.076Creative self-efficacy X Negative affect 0.098 0.267*Entrepreneur SA X Metacognitive ability X Negative affect -0.355**Entrepreneur SA X Creative SE X Negative affect 0.351**
R2 0.114* 0.255** 0.308** 0.394**Adj. R2 0.077* 0.196** 0.219** 0.303**
R2 0.114* 0.141** 0.053 0.086**Note: Standardized regression coefficients are displayed in the
table*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01