Entrepreneurial Expectancy, Task Effort, and Performance *

Research to date has not adequately explained the role that expectancy of entrepreneurial performance based on perceived ability plays in motivating persons to persevere on an entrepreneurial task. This study investigated the entrepreneurial expectancy, effort–performance linkage via a World Wide Web–based experiment involving 179 undergraduate business students at a large midwestern university. Results indicated that the type of feedback (positive versus negative) that individuals received regarding their entrepreneurial ability (regardless of actual ability) changed expectancies regarding future business start–up, but did not alter task effort or quality of performance. Individuals receiving positive feedback about their entrepreneurial abilities had higher entrepreneurial expectancies than individuals receiving negative feedback. We also found that males had higher expectancies regardless of experimental condition than females.

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