Entrepreneurial Mentoring: Emotional bonds and Trust in the Digital Era

Mentoring can be considered one of the most effective factors that help entrepreneurs achieve success, by providing them the opportunity to improve their skills, benefit from a mentor's support and guidance, view them as role models, and overcome the challenges and risks on the path to entrepreneurship. This relationship has an emotional and psychological side that is important to effectiveness, such as trust between the mentee and mentor, the mentee's willingness to disclose, and perceived similarity. Despite the rising number of studies on digital mentoring, there remains a gap in how psychological and emotional challenges are handled as crucial parts of effective mentorship in the digital era. In this chapter, we review the related studies that have been conducted to explore the effectiveness of digitalization in entrepreneurial mentoring, particularly from the viewpoint of emotions and trust, and try to respond to the question: How does the integration of digitalization into entrepreneurial mentoring influence its effectiveness, particularly with respect to emotional engagement and trust. The findings indicate that while the integration of digitalization in mentoring is mostly beneficial for overcoming existing barriers and enhancing accessibility, it has limitations in terms of emotional connection and human relationships.The extent of this integration depends on the technologies and programs used; for human relationships, a blended model is optimal. A successful mentoring program benefits from technology while designing processes that maintain the human bridge.