Have the “Pépite” startups found their footing? Perspectives from student entrepreneurs
In October 2013, Geneviève Fioraso, Minister of Higher Education and Research what was intended to be a comprehensive plan to promotestudent entrepreneurship. This initiative notably led to the launch in 2014 of the Student Hubs for Innovation, Technology Transfer, andEntrepreneurship, known by the acronym “Pépite.”
Karim Messeghem, University of Montpellier; Abdelaziz Swalhi, University of Montpellier and Constance Banc, University of Montpellier
Like the student-entrepreneur status, this initiative builds on the findings of the 2013 entrepreneurship conference, which highlighted the fragility and even precarious nature of student entrepreneurship. The 33 Pépite centers across mainland France and the overseas territories are dedicated to raising awareness, providing training, and supporting students who are starting their own businesses.
Nearly 10 years later, we sought to assess the effectiveness of these tools, which are still in use today. In 2019, an initial evaluation—while acknowledging the merits of the program—highlighted a lack of awareness, particularly among students and businesses. That report recommended, among other things, strengthening ties with stakeholders in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is the focus of our research.
Structures deemed useful
Admittedly, France is now recognized for the initiatives it has implemented to support student entrepreneurship. In the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor study, France ranks7thamong the 22 wealthiest countries for promoting entrepreneurship in higher education, but only17thin elementary and secondary education. What do the main stakeholders—who receive support within the clusters—think about this?
As part of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Lab chair at Labex Entreprendre, we conducted a study on the legitimacy of Pépite among 151 student entrepreneurs from 15 clusters across France. By “legitimacy,” we refer to the perceived alignment of an actor with an entrepreneurial ecosystem in terms of rules, values, norms, and definitions.
A measurement scale attempts to capture this and thus aims to assess the perceived ability of Pépite to foster market dynamics (utilitarian dimension), promote entrepreneurial dynamism (existential dimension), and contribute to the development of the ecosystem (socio-economic dimension). The 18 items comprising the scale were rated on a scale from 0 (“not at all”) to 100 (“completely”). According to the students surveyed, Pépites generally demonstrate a good level of legitimacy (average score of 74.36/100), but differences are noted across the three dimensions of the scale.
The highest score was recorded in the socioeconomic category (78.92 out of 100). According to respondents, the Pépite organizations are well recognized by other stakeholders in the ecosystem. They highlight the organizations’ strong roots within local entrepreneurial ecosystems and believe that they play an active role in both the management and governance of these ecosystems.
The score for the utility dimension is slightly lower (73.17/100). While the Pépites are considered useful in terms of creating overall value for student-entrepreneurs, the latter believe that they could do more to provide resources, particularly financial ones (fundraising, meetings with investors, etc.) and intangible ones (mentoring, training, etc.). Their contribution in terms of evaluating opportunities is fairly well recognized.
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The lowest score was recorded for the existential dimension (70.97/100). The students surveyed consider Pépite to be indispensable to the ecosystem, but they are somewhat more reserved regarding the teams’ entrepreneurial experience and Pépite’s ability to take risks in strategic and day-to-day activities (such as project selection, etc.).
Legitimacy as a driver of performance
Our study also shows that this perceived legitimacy fosters trust (85/100) and satisfaction (76/100) among student entrepreneurs toward the Pépite program. This second dimension, in fact, appears to be more strongly influenced by legitimacy. It accounts for approximately two-thirds of the variation in satisfaction, compared to 57% for trust.
These results highlight the value of measuring legitimacy as a driver of organizational performance. A Pépite perceived as legitimate by student-entrepreneurs is more likely to achieve high levels of satisfaction and trust. Thus, we can conclude that student-entrepreneurs who perceive the Pépite as legitimate will be more inclined to participate and engage in its activities and will therefore be better able to appreciate the services and support offered.
Generally speaking, these organizations would be well advised to refine their strategy for building legitimacy in order to achieve higher levels of satisfaction and trust among student entrepreneurs. One identified avenue for improvement in this regard is strengthening their ability to facilitate access to resources.
Karim Messeghem, University Professor, University of Montpellier; Abdelaziz Swalhi, Associate Professor of Management Sciences, University of Montpellier and Constance Banc, PhD in Management Sciences / Research Engineer at LabEx Entreprendre, University of Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Readthe original article.