The turbulence and uncertainty inherent in entrepreneurship make learning from experience critically important to entrepreneurs. However, many entrepreneurs work in relative isolation and lack opportunities to engage with peers in ways that promote meaningful reflection and learning. Since learning in small firms hinges on social interaction, these pressures contribute to the need for entrepreneurs to seek out and find social contexts that can support their learning and development. Given the importance of learning to an entrepreneur’s success, coaching—and group coaching in particular—is a natural setting for research. Coaching is a multidisciplinary approach to facilitating learning and change that supports personal reflection and meaning making, as well as the achievement of specific personal and/or professional goals. Group coaching involves the application of coaching principles to a small group setting.

Findings: The study revealed three different types of phenomena that participants either directly associated with their meaningful group coaching experiences, or that they illustrated through their storied accounts.

Read the dissertation