Contribution to the understanding of the impact of coaching on the development of the perception of entrepreneurial skills: a study of Réseau Entreprendre.

Summary The question of the entrepreneur's competence is absolutely central. However, taking this notion into account remains a persistent problem that inhibits the performance of coaching and thus hinders the development of the entrepreneurial phenomenon. In this research work, we have directed our interest towards the concept of entrepreneurial competencies in order to reposition the coach/entrepreneur relationship at the center of the coaching process. Based on all the typological classifications of entrepreneurial competencies, we chose the typology proposed by Man et al (2002) as the subject of our study. The authors propose a conceptual model that makes it possible to link the characteristics of SME entrepreneurs and the performance of their company. Based on the conviction that taking competencies into account is likely to produce new tools and support practices better adapted to the understanding and valorisation of the different dimensions of the entrepreneurial phenomenon, the problematic raised in this research is to know: to what extent does a support structure in the post-creation phase contribute to the improvement of entrepreneurs' self-perception of their entrepreneurial competencies? In order to answer this question, we have opted for a quantitative and longitudinal empirical study. In order to gain access to the field and to collect as much data as possible, our study was carried out within the framework of a partnership between the Entrepreneurship Research Center of EM Lyon Business School (CRE) and Réseau Entreprendre® (RE®). In parallel, we conducted three longitudinal studies through which we administered the same questionnaire twice, 8 months apart, to three different populations: Réseau Entreprendre® laureates (base population), coaches and unsuccessful candidates (control group). The first three waves of questionnaires were launched on February 29, 2012, the second ones towards the end of October 2012.To perform the analysis treatments, we used the linear regression approach with SPSS.11 software to test the nature of the relationships between the key variables of our study. In a second part of analysis, we conducted two comparative studies.