THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ENTREPRENEURS

On 27/10/2013, I had an opportunity to moderate a conversation with Prof. Stephen Zhang, professor of Entrepreneurship & Strategy of Adelaide Business School, Australia, involving invited local entrepreneurs at Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship (XIME), Kalamassery, Kochi.

Prof. Zhang, an electronic engineer and a doctorate in management, is a simple human being, otherwise a brilliant thought leader, who has been adjudged as the top Research Professor of the year by his University for consecutive terms, in addition to being chosen among the top 2% Scientist of the world by Stanford University. He had done deep research in the psychology of entrepreneurs, uncertainty in entrepreneurship, psycho physics and gender balance in entrepreneurship

Speaking about the psychology of entrepreneurs, he said that research had proven that entrepreneurs have more self efficacy to transform increasing perception of uncertainty into exploration & opportunity identification.

He terms psycho physics as an area of significance future research to study the entrepreneurial bias and distortion of perception such as underestimating high probables end overestimating low probables.

In a significant study, his team’s research could identify that gender inclusivity is not just an equity issue but a business case. The finding is that a gender balanced team has much more chances of entrepreneurial success. It is not that one gender scores over the the other but gender balance definitely delivers better entrepreneurial outcomes.

The conversation took place in the presence of invited entrepreneurs from different fields such as technology, skill development, alternate learning, medical devices, forex etc. The audience also included the senior professors of XIME as well as student members of XIME Entrepreneurship club. The entrepreneurs had exchanged their views and shared their experiences with the professor some of which did coincide with the professor’s research findings.

It was a forenoon well spent, high in intellectual content, going deeper into understanding of the entrepreneurial psyche, all that happened in the calm and amiable institutional surrounding of XIME.