Examining the effect of ‘entre-tainment’ as a cultural influence on entrepreneurial intentions

Little is known about the effect that cultural media has in influencing attitudes and behaviours towards entrepreneurship. In addressing this research gap this article employs a neologism – ‘entre-tainment’ – briefly defined as televisual media that stage and perform entrepreneurship for entertainment purposes. This study surveyed university students to test three hypotheses which examine the relationship between perceptions of ‘entre-tainment’ and entrepreneurial intent (multiple regression model using ordinary least squares). The findings conclude that there is a positive relationship between the skills that students believe they ascertain when they watch ‘entre-tainment’, and entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, the social legitimacy that they attach to this cultural media has a similar positive effect. Finally, the greater the social legitimacy attached to ‘entre-tainment’, the stronger the relationship between perceived skills and entrepreneurial intention. The analysis focuses on the broader implications of these findings of potential effects of entre-tainment in transmitting narrow messages of what it means to behave entrepreneurially.