The impact of realistic entrepreneurship previews on entrepreneurial biases, risk perception and opportunity evaluation

The evaluation of an opportunity may be one of the most critical decisions an emerging entrepreneur makes. This decision may be influenced by cognitive biases and the entrepreneur's perception of risk. Consequently, the use of a realistic entrepreneurship preview has been proposed as a tool to influence the biases and the perception of risk in order to make a more accurate evaluation of an opportunity. This study investigates the effects of realistic entrepreneurship previews on entrepreneur's biases, perceptions and evaluation of opportunities. The study examined 135 nascent entrepreneurs from who were participants in the Kauffman FastTrac(TM) program. Findings indicate that realistic entrepreneurship previews seem to moderately influence opportunity evaluation and they have a significant effect on perceptions of risk. The study also found that realistic entrepreneurship previews did not significantly impact the cognitive biases of nascent entrepreneurs, which indicates robustness in these biases, which may prove beneficial for those on the verge of starting a new venture.