Experiential Learning through the Lens of Dual Process Theory: Exploring the Power of Personal Likes and Dislikes in the Context of Entrepreneurship Education

Understanding (or misunderstanding) one’s own likes and dislikes and their origins plays a powerful role within human life. The power of likes and dislikes pushes a person toward or against something. This power makes a person pursue some issues while abandoning the others. It is the same power that makes people persist in something despite the challenges and limitations they encounter, or on the contrary, avoid doing something despite obvious benefits. I dare to suggest that in the context of the entrepreneurship experience, the power of likes and dislikes may determine the effort invested in pursuing perceived opportunities and the dedication to this pursuit, regardless of the scarcity of resources.

I believe that the attempt to understand the hidden reasons behind these feelings may play a decisive role in experiencing the pursuit, and this needs to be emphasized within entrepreneurship research and education. I try to validate this statement through my personal example of experiencing entrepreneurship, and learning about it in the summary part of this PhD thesis. The four papers that constitute the core of this thesis provide the reader with a deeper insight into this issue from educational, methodological and theoretical points of view.