Wise Interventions in Entrepreneurship

“[…], we define “wise interventions” as ones that focus on (are “wise to”) the meanings and inferences people draw about themselves, other people, or a situation they are in and use precise, theory- and research-based techniques to alter these meanings (Walton & Wilson, 2018, p. 618).” The term "wise" is not about good or bad interventions compared to others. Rather, it is about the psychological functioning of such interventions, i.e. "wise" in the psychological sense.

In connection with entrepreneurship, it is about wise interventions for a specific group of people: Entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs often face major challenges, particularly during the start-up process, and must fulfill many tasks simultaneously. This can lead to a negative perception of themselves, e.g., with thoughts such as "I can't do it." On the other hand, in our entrepreneurship training STEP (Student Training for Entrepreneurial Promotion), we experience that the positive influence of the training on the participants decays over a certain time (Gielnik & Bohlayer, 2024). We want to counteract this with appropriate wise interventions.

To this end, we develop wise interventions tailored to the critical constructs and underlying psychological mechanisms of founders. In this way, we help people overcome problems and thus shape the success of the start-up process. We use experimental designs with a control and intervention group to analyze the effectiveness of the developed wise interventions. This allows us to investigate effects at both the group and subject levels.