PhD Candidate at U. of Massachusetts Lowell, United States
Entrepreneurial coaching has become an essential resource for entrepreneurs looking to improve the success of their businesses. An experienced coach has been shown to be helpful for entrepreneurs however, we know little about how the entrepreneurs' personal characteristics influence entrepreneurial coaching or whether the impact of those characteristics varies across the organization’s life cycle. Moreover, questions remain regarding how the interpersonal dynamics between the coach and entrepreneur impact relational outcomes. Therefore, this study examines the impact of an entrepreneur’s self-efficacy on relationship outcomes and whether that impact is conditional on the entrepreneur’s coachability as well as the life cycle of the venture. This study finds that the achievement of relational outcomes are more positive for entrepreneurs that have been leading their businesses for more than three years. For early entrepreneurs, a high level of self-efficacy may be useful for obtaining the entrepreneurial outcomes of the relationship even when their level of coachability is low. On the other hand, when early entrepreneurs have a low level of self-efficacy, their level of coachability has no influence in the achievement of the entrepreneurial outcomes. This study provides theoretical and practical implications and proposes directions for future research.