Separating the Biased Perceptions from Lack of Knowledge on Entrepreneurship Through a Diagnostic Instrument: LEDI

Abstract

Students of entrepreneurship either have ‘biased perceptions’ and/or they lackknowledge. The literature states that biased perceptions can have lasting effect evenafter the training (von Graevenitz, et.al, 2010). Lack of knowledge hinders the decisionmaking of nascent entrepreneurs when they rely on personal opinions or pastexperiences as heuristics derived from small samples or non-random samples. Currentlyentrepreneurship education is not designed to address the impact of biased perceptionsand lack of knowledge. There is a need to separate biased perceptions from ‘lack ofknowledge’ so that entrepreneurship training could be implemented on a more tailoredmanner. It is the goal of this paper to devise such an instrument in the lean start upcontext which is a widely used model of entrepreneurship training. The proposedinstrument is tested on a convenience-based sample composed of 212 people.Employment of a three-tiered instrument in this context is a first of its kind. Knowledgeor lack of knowledge is checked in the first tier, relevant reasoning is assessed in thesecond and certainty is evaluated in the third tier.