Scheduled: Chérine ZGAYA

Jury

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes student entrepreneurship at two distinct stages of the entrepreneurial process: the formation of entrepreneurial intent among students who have not yet embarked on an entrepreneurial endeavor, and the mechanisms associated with continuing that endeavor among students who have already begun one. It addresses a limitation of approaches centered on entrepreneurial intention: while these approaches explain the mental representations that precede action, they do not adequately account for the mechanisms at work when an individual actually invests time, resources, and energy in a project. The research draws on two theoretical frameworks. The first builds upon the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and models of entrepreneurial intention. It examines the role of perceived desirability, perceived feasibility, and the social environment, while also studying their antecedents: intrinsic and extrinsic behavioral beliefs, perceived competencies, and the presence of an entrepreneur in the individual’s social circle. The second draws on research on entrepreneurial commitment and distinguishes between two foundations of commitment—value-based commitment and exchange-based commitment—as well as two targets: the entrepreneurial project and the role of the entrepreneur. This second study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial behaviors, resources invested, forms of commitment, and overinvestment. The empirical study is based on a quantitative survey of 925 students at leading French business schools, divided into two independent samples based on their entrepreneurial status. The results of the first part show that entrepreneurial intention is primarily associated with perceived desirability and feasibility. Desirability is more strongly associated with intrinsic beliefs than with extrinsic beliefs, while perceived feasibility is more strongly linked to soft skills than to technical skills. A comparison with data collected by Boissin, Chollet, and Emin in 2008 highlights a persistent pattern: entrepreneurship is significantly more attractive to students than it is viewed as an immediate career choice following graduation. The second part shows that, among students already engaged, the progression of entrepreneurial behaviors is part of a chain of associations linking the resources invested to various forms of engagement, and then to overinvestment. The distinction between commitment to the project and commitment to the entrepreneurial profession prevents entrepreneurial commitment from being reduced to a single measure: a student may actively pursue a project without necessarily envisioning a long-term entrepreneurial career. The results also highlight that commitment is not merely a desirable outcome of the entrepreneurial process: certain forms of commitment—particularly those based on resources already invested and the opportunity costs associated with withdrawal—are linked to continued investment beyond the resources initially envisaged. The thesis thus shifts the analysis of student entrepreneurship from an approach focused solely on intention to a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms that precede and accompany action. For business schools, the findings suggest distinguishing between initiatives designed to promote the appeal and feasibility of entrepreneurship and those aimed at students who are already engaged. For the latter group, support is no longer merely about encouraging persistence; it must also help students assess the resources they have committed, the reasons driving them to pursue their project, and the situations in which persistence can turn into overinvestment.