Design immersion and network engagement exposure as positive mediators for entrepreneurial capacity development

A diverse body of literature confirms the need to better understand the antecedents of national entrepreneurial capacity, especially for developing nations or similar de-developing “rust belt” regions within developed nations. Although many institutional scholars of varying views argue for policies that stimulate the development of entrepreneurial capacity as a safeguard to sustainable progress, they often disagree about the optimal institutional path to achieving more robust entrepreneurial activity. Although a burgeoning number of management and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) scholars have begun to explore various aspects of design culture, few have studied the effects of collaborative design processes as mediators for institutional entrepreneurial capacity development.

Our dominant intention was to test our theory that exposure to design culture and design processes would induce heighten levels of individual attributes associated with entrepreneurship capacity. Other studies have provided evidence of correlations between visualization and technological entrepreneurship outcomes. The design culture treatment for our study was comprised of collaborative design process variables, network engagement (NE) and design immersion (DI). These are theorized to predict the dependent attribute variables, entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and collaboration self-efficacy (CSE). In previous studies, ESE has tested as a positive predictor of entrepreneurial capacity. For this empirical study, we collected and analyzed pre- and post-exposure 32-item survey data from 160+ participants in multiple iterations of a major interdisciplinary team-based design project (“design treatment”) and a control group.

Preliminary analysis of our results using statistical t-tests confirm positive mediating effects of design immersion (DI) and network engagement (NE) exposure on the dependent variable entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE). In addition, the results partially support positive effects on collaboration self-efficacy (CSE) and perceptions of opportunity (PO). Results for the mediating effects of DI and NE on overall propensity to remain (PR) and affect geopolitical (A) are not supported. However, the PR dimension, likelihood to remain (PR.1) is supported. At the personal level, majorities of participants reported being much or very much transformed by the treatment. We conclude with critical comments and recommendations for future research.