Have "Pépites" found their legitimacy? Perspectives from student entrepreneurs
In October 2013, Geneviève Fioraso, Minister of Higher Education and Research what was to be a vast plan to promotestudent entrepreneurship. This resulted in particular in the launch in 2014 of Student Hubs for Innovation, Transfer, andEntrepreneurship, known by the acronym "Pépite."
Karim Messeghem, University of Montpellier; Abdelaziz Swalhi, University of Montpellier and Constance Banc, University of Montpellier
This program, like the student-entrepreneur status, is a continuation of the entrepreneurship conference held in 2013, which highlighted the fragility and even precariousness of student entrepreneurship. There are 33 Pépites in mainland France and overseas territories, whose mission is to raise awareness, train and support students who are starting out.
Nearly 10 years later, we attempted to take stock of these tools, which are still in use today. In 2019, an initial assessment, while highlighting the merits of this system, pointed to a lack of awareness, particularly among students and businesses. This report recommended, in particular, strengthening ties with players in the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is the subject of our research.
Structures deemed useful
Admittedly, France is now recognized for the measures it has implemented to support student entrepreneurship. In the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor study, France ranks7thamong the 22 richest countries for promoting entrepreneurship in higher education, but only17thin primary and secondary education. What do the main stakeholders who are supported 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 Pépites among 151 student entrepreneurs from 15 hubs in France. By "legitimacy," we mean the perceived suitability of an actor within 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 Pépites to encourage market dynamics (utilitarian dimension), promote entrepreneurial dynamics (existential dimension), and contribute to the development of the ecosystem (socio-economic dimension). The 18 items that make up the scale were rated from 0 ("not at all") to 100 ("completely"). According to the students surveyed, Pépite generally has a good level of legitimacy (average score of 74.36/100), but there are differences across the three dimensions of the scale.
The highest score relates to the socioeconomic dimension (78.92/100). According to respondents, Pépites are well recognized by other players in the ecosystem. They highlight their strong roots within regional entrepreneurial ecosystems and consider that they contribute effectively to their development and governance.
The score for the utility dimension is slightly lower (73.17/100). While Pépites are considered useful in terms of creating overall value for student entrepreneurs, the latter believe that they could contribute more in terms of resources, particularly financial (fundraising, meetings with investors, etc.) and intangible (mentoring, training, etc.). Their contribution in terms of evaluating opportunities is widely recognized.
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The lowest score was observed for the existential dimension (70.97/100). The students surveyed consider Pépites to be indispensable in the ecosystem, but they are somewhat more reserved about the entrepreneurial experience of the teams and the ability of Pépites to take risks in strategic and day-to-day activities (project selection, etc.).
Legitimacy as a source of performance
Our study also shows that this perceived legitimacy promotes trust (85/100) and satisfaction (76/100) among student entrepreneurs toward Pépite. This second dimension, moreover, seems to be more influenced by legitimacy. It accounts for about two-thirds of the variation in satisfaction, compared to 57% for trust.
These results highlight the importance of measuring legitimacy as a lever for organizational performance. A Pépite perceived as legitimate by student entrepreneurs will be more likely to achieve a high level of satisfaction and trust. We can therefore assume that student entrepreneurs who perceive Pépite as legitimate will be more inclined to participate and get involved in its activities and will thus be better able to appreciate the services and support offered.
In general, these structures have every interest in working on their legitimacy strategy in order to achieve a higher level of satisfaction and trust among student entrepreneurs. One identified avenue for progress in this regard is to strengthen their capacity to facilitate access to resources.
Karim Messeghem, University Professor, University of Montpellier; Abdelaziz Swalhi, Senior Lecturer in Management Sciences, University of Montpellier and Constance Banc, Doctor of 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.