Effectiveness of Entrepreneurial Inspirational Stories (Success and Failure) on Entrepreneurial Intention

The present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of inspirational entrepreneurship stories (failures and successes) on individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions. This study is considered among descriptive-correlation research in terms of execution and data collection method. The statistical population included 295 graduate students from the Faculty of Economics and Entrepreneurship at Razi University, from which a sample of 180 people was selected using a simple randomized method based on the sample size obtained from Morgan's table. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data and structural equation modeling and Smart PLS3 software were used to test research hypotheses. Results of the path analysis indicated that success stories can leave a significant and positive impact on people’s entrepreneurial intentions by leaving a positive influence on entrepreneurial self-efficacy and attitude as well as propensity to act, perceived desirability, and perceived feasibility, while failure stories can leave a significant impact only on entrepreneurial intentions through influencing entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Overall, it can be argued that people create or improve and enhance their entrepreneurial intention through being inspired by stories that fit their purpose but might deal with a reduced tendency to entrepreneurship due to changes in their attitude when they are exposed to negative and inconsistent stories. Results of the present study can be effective in the design and implementation of entrepreneurship training programs.