The benefits of entrepreneurial mentorship are well documented, but there is limited research on how entrepreneurs connect with mentors, especially in digital settings. We partnered with an online platform that connects entrepreneurs to potential mentors to conduct a field experiment in online mentoring. Drawing on literature on entrepreneurial mentorship and Social Cognitive Theory, we compared the effects of three interventions on the likelihood of reaching out and making a connection with a mentor in a digital setting. We find that showing entrepreneurs a video of a successful mentor–mentee relationship increases the chances that they will reach out to a potential mentor but does not improve their chances of making a connection. These findings are more pronounced for female entrepreneurs. While not all entrepreneurs adopt the offered interventions, those that make the effort to learn to navigate the online platform and craft a suitable introductory message are successful in establishing a mentoring connection. We discuss these implications for both theory and practice.

创业导师的好处已有充分记录，但关于企业家如何与导师建立联系的研究有限，尤其是在数字环境中。我们与一个在线平台合作，将企业家与潜在的导师联系起来，进行在线指导的实地实验。根据有关创业指导和社会认知理论的文献，我们比较了三种干预措施对在数字环境中与导师接触并建立联系的可能性的影响。我们发现，向企业家展示成功的导师与学员关系的视频会增加他们接触潜在导师的机会，但并不会提高他们建立联系的机会。这些发现对于女性企业家来说更为明显。虽然并非所有企业家都采用所提供的干预措施，但那些努力学习如何浏览在线平台并编写合适的介绍性信息的企业家成功地建立了指导联系。我们讨论这些对理论和实践的影响。