Developing entrepreneurial self-efficacy : a Transformative Learning Theory approach

Abstract

At this time of COVID-19, the world is at the dawn of a new era characterised by a fundamental shift in the way people live, work and conduct relationships. It seems that South Africa, battling with an unemployment rate of 30.1% and economic contraction of 2% in the first quarter of 2020, is not preparing its people with skills for a shift to the new era. Entrepreneurship has been suggested as a viable means to reduce unemployment, and education has been shown to improve entrepreneurial outcomes. South African entrepreneurship education is highly theoretical, borrowing heavily from management courses. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the Shifting Hope, Activating Potential Entrepreneurship (SHAPE) social-technology programme developed studentpreneurs to take entrepreneurial action after the thirteen-week systemic action learning and action research initiative (SALAR). The study used a longitudinal research design, where a questionnaire was used to evaluate Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy (ESE) before, during and after the training programme. A statistically significant improvement in attitudes towards embarking on entrepreneurial action was observed. Based on this result, participants experienced developmental transformation. Grounded in the developmental transformation that occurred amongst the participants, a Transformative Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy (TESE) model was created.