Goal Setting , Goal Striving , and Goal Attainment : Entrepreneurs ’ Motivation

from the proposal: “Although goal striving is important in people’s lives, little research has examined goal striving. In the motivation literature focus has been on goal setting and, to a much lesser degree, goal attainment. No published study has examined entrepreneurs’ goal striving, which constitutes the purpose of the study. A sample of entrepreneurs will provide the data for the study. The intended outcomes for the research are three-fold: a scholarly presentation to the IUSB faculty, presentation at an academic conference, and a publication in a recognized international journal in entrepreneurship. If granted, the Faculty Research Grant will provide me opportunity to focus on the research during the summer of 2013.” A presentation entitled “Goal Setting, Goal Striving, and Goal Attainment: Entrepreneurs' Motivation” to the IUSB faculty will be held on Friday, September 27, 2013, at 2:30 pm, in the Alumni Room in the Administration Building. Please see the attached copy of the email invitation. I presented the conceptual model at the 2013 Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference. This conference was held at EMLYON Business School, Écully, France, June 5-8, 2013. Specifically, I presented the paper at 8:30 am on June 8, 2013. Please see the attached copies of the summary, paper, and presentation slides. Because I presented this paper at the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference, at a minimum, the summary will be published in the recognized international publication, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research (FER). This publication is available online at http://www.babson.edu/Academics/centers/blank-center/bcerc/Pages/frontiers-ofentrepreneurship-research.aspx. If deemed appropriate by the editors, the entire paper will be published in FER. Thus, at a minimum, the summary will be made published in print and online as part of the publication Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research in June, 2014. While it was intended that the presentation and paper included the conceptual model and an empirical examination of this model, the data collection was halted because the director of a venture accelerator program rescinded his offer for me to collect data from the participants resulting in a presentation and paper based on a conceptual model only. At the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference, I have teamed up with a researcher at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, whom I met at the conference, to obtain data for the project. We have collaborated on a submission for the 2014 Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference based on an empirical study of the conceptual model. This was submitted on September 11, 2013. If accepted, it will result in another presentation and FER publication. It will also be the basis for a manuscript that will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed academic journal. In conclusion, this constitutes my final report on the Research Summer Grant as I have achieved all the intended outcomes listed in the proposal. Even though I have achieved these outcomes, I continue with the project (e.g., data collection and analysis) because of the obstacles I encountered. I also continue with the project in the pursuit of a publication in a peer-reviewed academic journal.