Teaching Entrepreneurs How to Self-Regulate Their Learning to Better Deal With Uncertainty

Entrepreneurs constantly need to take accurate decisions based on incomplete or inconsistent information due to high uncertainty in novel situations. So far, research has predominantly conceptualized learning in entrepreneurial contexts as a trial-and-error process that successively leads to high expertise. However, entrepreneurs are often confronted with novel situations and problems where prior knowledge is not applicable and where they need to learn beyond their preexisting knowledge. Building on Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory we introduce the concept of self-regulated entrepreneurial learning (SREL). This form of higher-order learning accounts for behavioral, social, and motivational influences of learning and enables entrepreneurs to better deal with uncertainty. Following a design-based research approach we develop a concrete course design to teach SREL to entrepreneurs. Thus, we not only introduce self-regulated learning as a useful approach in entrepreneurship education but also develop a concrete SREL course for entrepreneurs.