Winter, 2002 187 Research to date has not adequately explained the role that expectancy of entrepreneurial performance based on perceived ability plays in motivating persons to persevere on an entrepreneurial task. This study investigated the entrepreneurial expectancy, effort-perfor- mance linkage via a World Wide Web–based experiment involving 179 undergraduate busi- ness students at a large midwestern university. Results indicated that the type of feedback (positive versus negative) that individuals received regarding their entrepreneurial ability (regardless of actual ability) changed expectancies regarding future business start-up, but did not alter task effort or quality of performance. Individuals receiving positive feedback about their entrepreneurial abilities had higher entrepreneurial expectancies than individu- als receiving negative feedback. We also found that males had higher expectancies regard- less of experimental condition than females. INTRODUCTION Much early entrepreneurship research focused on the search for an entrepreneurial personality (Smilor, 1997; Wortman, 1987). However, the quest to find a consistent set of traits that characterized successful entrepreneurs was troubled at best (Gartner, 1988; Carland, Hoy, & Carland, 1988; Shaver, 1995), largely mirroring earlier efforts in lead- ership research that sought to differentiate leaders from nonleaders (Geier, 1967; Yukl & Van Fleet, 1992). As a result, entrepreneurship research shifted to explore new venture creation from other perspectives. Shaver and Scott (1991) pointed out, however, that despite the failure of personological trait research, it was still the individual who created a new venture. Recent research has demonstrated the impact that cognitive and social processes have on entrepreneurial behavior (see for example, Baron, 1998; Douglas & Shepherd, 2000; Gatewood, Shaver, & Gartner, 1995; Krueger, Reilly, & Carsrud, 2000; Nicholson, 1998). P T E & Entrepreneurial Expectancy, Task Effort, and Performance* Elizabeth J. Gatewood Kelly G. Shaver Joshua B. Powers William B. Gartner 1042-2587-01-262 Copyright 2002 by Baylor University * A version of this article was presented at the Babson/Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneurship Research Conference, Wellesley, MA, June, 2000. Please send all correspondence to: Elizabeth J. Gatewood, Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47404-3730. email: gatewood@indiana.edu