IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijilea/v12y2012i2p197-216.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trust and self-efficacy in formal learning networks: the effects on entrepreneurs' capacity to act upon business opportunities

Author

Listed:
  • Pontus Bergh
  • Sara Thorgren
  • Joakim Wincent

Abstract

In efforts to promote better realisation of business opportunities, government support of formal policy led learning networks among entrepreneurs has been a popular approach worldwide. This article uses survey data from 109 entrepreneurs who took part in formal learning networks to examine how trust in network partners influences the capacity to act upon business opportunities for entrepreneurs. Further, we examine how this influence is moderated by the entrepreneurs' own self-efficacy. Our results support a positive relationship between developing trust in other networking entrepreneurs and the capacity to act upon business opportunities. Self-efficacy was found to moderate this relationship. For entrepreneurs with low self-efficacy, results support an inverted U-shaped relationship, with the greatest outcomes reached with an intermediate level of trust. For entrepreneurs with high self-efficacy, a positive linear relationship is supported. We discuss implications for further research on trust and realisation of opportunities, and for learning network policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Pontus Bergh & Sara Thorgren & Joakim Wincent, 2012. "Trust and self-efficacy in formal learning networks: the effects on entrepreneurs' capacity to act upon business opportunities," International Journal of Innovation and Learning, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 12(2), pages 197-216.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijilea:v:12:y:2012:i:2:p:197-216
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=48354
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijilea:v:12:y:2012:i:2:p:197-216. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=57 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.