Entrepreneurial fear of failure: Scale development and validation

Fear of failure is an important part of the experience of entrepreneurship. Yet past research has mainly investigated fear of failure in entrepreneurship among non entrepreneurs or nascent entrepreneurs and has done so by asking for reactions to hypothetical future failure. This approach to operationalizing the construct limits our capacity for understanding how entrepreneurs actually experience fear of failure while practicing entrepreneurship. In this paper, we conceptualize entrepreneurial fear of failure as a negative affective reaction based in cognitive appraisals of the potential for failure in the uncertain and ambiguous context of entrepreneurship. We use multiple samples to develop and validate a multidimensional, formative measure to assess entrepreneurial fear of failure as a state that is both cognitive and affective in nature. In addition to evidence of the psychometric properties of the new scale across multiple studies, we present a nomological network analysis with respect to measures of theoretically derived psychological outcomes and perceived behavioral tendencies of entrepreneurial fear of failure. We then discuss the theoretical, methodological, and empirical implications of this new measure of entrepreneurial fear of failure with an eye towards use of this scale in future research.     

An Examination of the Contribution of Dispositional Affect on Ethical Lapses

The popular press and academic research has focused primarily on the characteristics of corporate leaders. Subordinates have been studied much less frequently than leaders and yet they play a pivotal role in destructive leadership processes. An area holding significant potential to bring clarity to subordinates?? ability to withstand (or succumb) to pressures from superiors is dispositional affect. In our exploratory study, we examine how specific affective states influence subordinates?? unethical behavior. We performed an experiment with 63 mid-level managers having significant work experience. Participants were given ethical scenarios and asked to assess their intentions to comply with their superiors?? requests to engage in unethical conduct. The participants also completed the positive affect negative affect schedule (PANAS) which provides measures of affective states. Our results provide support for theory-based predictions. The findings of our study make important contributions and have implications to both practice and theory. First, we identify certain affective states that encourage subordinates to adopt the behavior of a conformer or colluder and thus be susceptible to their superiors?? unethical directives. Second, our results suggest the need for training programs to assist employees in managing affect in the work place and consideration of organizational changes that provide a culture of empowerment of its employees. Third, unlike a large majority of prior research, we measured naturally occurring affective states rather than providing a contrived (and potentially exaggerated) triggering event to elicit affective states. Fourth, we examined specific affective states rather than examining only general positive and negative valence categories.     

Does national sentiment affect foreign direct investment,and if so,how? Additional evidence

Studies of foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions typically assume that decision makers and stakeholders act rationally. Drawing on studies conducted at the individual level, this study focuses instead on affect and explores theoretically and empirically how national sentiment influences FDI decisions. In particular, we develop a typology for understanding national sentiment along two axes—positive versus negative and accumulated versus transient—and investigate their separate influences on FDI. The results indicate that negative sentiment has a greater influence on FDI than positive sentiment and that accumulated sentiment has a greater influence than transient sentiment. This study complements conventional FDI research by demonstrating that national sentiment offers additional explanatory power beyond the variables known to influence FDI decisions. Moreover, our study shows that research conducted at the individual level can be useful for understanding the influence of affective elements on FDI decisions.     

Entrepreneurial passion diversity in new venture teams: An empirical examination of short- and long-term performance implications

Empirical evidence is mounting that passion is an important part of entrepreneurship, contributing to behavior and outcomes for entrepreneurs, employees, and ventures. Yet knowledge of the performance implications of passion within new venture teams is sorely lacking. We examine how both the average level of entrepreneurial passion and the diversity of passion within new venture teams contributes to venture performance in both the short- and long-term. We test our model with multi-source, multi-wave data collected from 107 new venture teams participating in an accelerator program. Our findings indicate that average team passion is not significantly related to performance, but passion diversity, particularly intensity separation, is negatively related to performance. These findings have important implications for the literature on passion, new venture teams, and group affective diversity.Executive summaryWhile existing studies have substantially improved our understanding of entrepreneurial passion, its sources, and its subsequent impact, insight into this topic remains limited in at least three ways. First, most new ventures are founded and led by teams rather than individuals, yet existing studies predominantly focus on entrepreneurial passion at the individual rather than team level. Second, while there is a prevailing assumption in existing literature that entrepreneurial passion leads to beneficial outcomes consistent with longstanding work in psychology, there is emerging evidence in entrepreneurship that passion may not always be functional and that it can even be dysfunctional. Despite this, we have limited understanding of what types of passion or when or for whom it is dysfunctional. And third, extant work on entrepreneurial passion for individuals and within teams has focused on behavioral or self-report measures of performance (e.g. Cardon and Kirk, 2015; Santos & Cardon, 2019) as well as venture survival, rather than objective team or firm performance in the short- and long-term.In this paper, we study the influence of team passion on new venture team performance. We draw on theory concerning entrepreneurial passion within venture teams (Cardon et al., 2017) that suggests that different aspects of entrepreneurial passion within teams shape team dynamics and venture outcomes. While generally, theories of passion suggest that entrepreneurial passion is positively related to team outcomes due to the positive emotions it brings about, we find that in teams, the relationships are more complex. While the average level of passion among team members is positively related to team performance when considered alone, this effect is not significant when passion diversity is also considered. Diversity of passion among individual team members has a negative relationship with team performance, including diversity in the level of passion team members experience (intensity separation), as well as diversity in the object of their passion (focus variety). These negatively affect team dynamics due to conflicting emotions and identities among team members associated with passion diversity. We examine these relationships on specific team performance outcomes including evaluation of the business idea in the short-term and venture performance five years after their participation in an accelerator.The sample used in this study includes 107 entrepreneurial teams that were part of an accelerator program in the Netherlands. Teams were evaluated on the quality of their business ideas at the end of the accelerator program and the amount of investment the team had received five years later. Our results provide no support for positive effects of average team passion on the quality of the business ideas and confirm the negative effects of passion intensity separation on the quality of the business idea and the negative effects of passion focus variety on later venture performance.This paper makes several contributions. First, we expand the literature on passion in entrepreneurship, specifically adding to our understanding of passion within new venture teams. More specifically, we contribute to the growing body of evidence concerning potential dysfunctions of passion by uncovering a dysfunctional property of team passion diversity that uniquely manifests itself at the team level of analysis. We contribute to the literature on new venture teams by examining team composition in the form of passion diversity, and its relationship with team performance. Finally, our study extends work on the effects of entrepreneurial passion by looking at objective team performance outcomes in both the short- and long-term.For entrepreneurs, our findings confirm the importance of affect and identity for new venture teams, and specifically our findings indicate that there is a dark side to team passion. While passion is generally positioned as a positive phenomenon, we highlight the negative outcomes that passion can have in the team context. Diversity in the amount of passion team members experience can diminish the quality of the business ideas the team is able to generate in the short-term, while diversity in the focus of team members' passion can diminish the firm's long-term performance. For investors and accelerator communities this research validates the importance of considering entrepreneurial team composition and specifically entrepreneurial passion levels and domains when investing in teams or when supporting venture building.     

Negative emotions of an entrepreneurial career: Self-employment and regulatory coping behaviors

Although we know a great deal about the relationship between self-employment and the experience of positive emotions such as passion, excitement, happiness, satisfaction, and flow, there is some research that suggests that the self-employed may be more susceptible than employees to negative emotions such as stress, fear of failure, loneliness, mental strain, and grief. We draw on the literature on role requirements to develop a model of career pursuit based on individuals' willingness and abilities to regulate these emotions. Using a nation-wide survey of more than 2700 US citizens we show that over and above the effects of positive emotions, the self-employed experienced fewer negative emotions than those who are employed, contingent on their regulatory coping behaviors. We discuss implications of these results for the literature on entrepreneurial emotions.     

Family firms and the interests of non‐family stakeholders: The influence of family managers' affective commitment and family salience in terms of power

The goal of this research is to analyze the heterogeneity of family firms in the normative attention to their non‐family stakeholders. With this aim, we suggest that the psychological process of top family managers in terms of individual affective commitment to their firms is a key variable to explain that heterogeneity. However, we also suggest a moderator effect of the family stakeholder salience in the relationship between the managers' affective commitment to the firm and the establishment of firm goals toward non‐family stakeholders. The results of a hierarchical regression analysis on data obtained from 207 family executives show a significant positive influence of managers' affective commitment on the establishment of goals related both to internal (employees) and external (customers and community) non‐family stakeholders. In addition, we can observe a negative moderator effect of the family utilitarian power—as an indicator of the family stakeholder salience—on the relationship between the family managers' affective commitment and the goals related to non‐family employees.     

Impact of auditory sense on trust and brand affect through auditory social interaction and control

Voice assistants—or voice-enabled artificial intelligence—have changed the way people interact with their surroundings dramatically. Utilizing an enactive view of social cognition theory, this study demonstrates how voice assistants can act as [semi] autonomous agents to hold instantaneous social interactions with consumers. This research employed two experimental studies. Study 1 used two voice assistant mobile applications, Microsoft Cortana and Google Assistant, and Study 2 used Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana. The contributions this paper makes are two-fold. First, the results illustrate how perceived auditory sense drives perceived auditory control through auditory social interactions with a voice assistant that lead to brand affect and consumers’ trust in the voice assistant. Second, results shed light on the role of surprise as a repelling drive that attenuates the effect of perceived auditory control on brand affect.     

Ethical consumer decision‐making: The role of need for cognition and affective responses

Most of the academic research in the field of consumer ethics has focused on the cognitive antecedents and processes of unethical consumer behavior. However, the specific roles of discrete emotions such as fear have not yet been investigated thoroughly. This research examines the role of the need for cognition (NFC), the three affective responses—fear, power, and excitement—and perceived issue importance on moral intensity, ethical perceptions, and ethical intentions for four types of unethical consumer behaviors. A sample of consumers from the two cities of Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt (n = 346) participated in the survey. Most research hypotheses were supported. NFC, issue importance, and affect variables were all predictors of moral intensity, ethical perceptions, and ethical intentions in four different consumer ethics scenarios. The specific predictors varied from one consumer ethics scenario to another, however.     

Predicting Entrepreneurial Burnout in a Moderated Mediated Model of Job Fit

We introduce, and empirically test, a model of entrepreneurial burnout that highlights the relationships among job fit, entrepreneurial passion, destiny beliefs, and burnout. Using a sample of 326 individuals involved in entrepreneurial jobs, we tested the link between job fit and two forms of passion—harmonious and obsessive—and the moderating role of entrepreneurs' destiny beliefs about work (i.e., the belief that a successful career is “meant to be”). Findings illustrated that their job fit perceptions were positively related to harmonious passion, which in turn negatively predicted burnout. Additionally, the relationship between job fit and obsessive passion was moderated by destiny beliefs, such that it was positive at high and average levels of destiny beliefs. In turn, obsessive passion was positively related to burnout. We discuss implications for both theory and practice.     

Dispositional affectivity and work outcomes of expatriates

How the two components of dispositional affectivity, positive affectivity, representing the predisposition to respond positively to environmental stimuli, and negative affectivity, depicting the opposite reaction, influence work has been the focus of much research. Although dispositional affectivity appears to be a promising construct to explain and predict many attitudinal and behavioral outcomes in the workplace, few studies have empirically investigated dispositional affectivity and the work of expatriates. Hence, data from a net-based survey including 350 expatriates in Denmark were used to examine the relationship between dispositional affectivity and their work outcomes. Results showed consistent positive associations between positive affectivity and all the studied work outcomes and the opposite relationships for negative affectivity. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed in detail.     

Failed but validated? The effect of market validation on persistence and performance after a crowdfunding failure

We investigate the impact of market validation on persistence and subsequent performance following a specific type of failure (crowdfunding failure). We leverage a mixed methods design, employing a controlled lab experiment with entrepreneurs (Study 1) and a four-year lagged longitudinal field study which combines two archival databases (Study 2). In our experiment, we find that market validation encourages entrepreneur persistence through affective activation and cognition-based action intentions (specifically search and knowledge integration). We also find that another form of validation, expert validation, strengthens this relationship. In our field study, market validation is shown to be a stronger predictor of performance after a crowdfunding failure in comparison to expert validation. We draw from the social proof and wisdom of the crowd perspectives to develop our theoretical model and explain the implications of our findings.     

Same-Sex Couples in Advertisements: An Investigation of the Role of Implicit Attitudes on Cognitive Processing and Evaluation

This research examined how implicit attitudes are associated with cognitive processing and self-reported evaluation of advertisements featuring same-sex couples. Hypotheses were posited using the theoretical framework of social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1986) and perspectives on implicit attitudes. In Study 1, participants watched and evaluated 10 television advertisements while physiological measures of cognitive and affective processing were collected. Ads varied such that half used same-sex couples as protagonists while the other half used other-sex couples. Participants demonstrated less positive responses to ads featuring same-sex couples. Physiological and self-reported responses were associated with implicit attitudes toward homosexuality Negative implicit attitudes toward homosexuality were associated with more negative affect, less attention, less positivity, and less liking for ads featuring same-sex couples. Two subsequent studies replicated these findings in nonstudent samples, indicating that participants preferred ads with other-sex couples (Study 2) and that implicit attitudes were associated with this response (Study 3). This research suggests that implicit attitudes affect processing and evaluation of ads featuring same-sex couples in ways unaccounted for by explicitly measured attitudes. Results are discussed in terms of advancing theory, furthering understanding of the dynamic processing of ads featuring in-group and out-group members, and practical implications.     

领导成员交换与员工创造力：情感机制的中介作用

情感是员工创造力的重要前因,而已有文献结论存在不一致,且未深入地探讨影响员工情绪的组织情境因素。文章依据情感事件理论,分析和检验了领导成员交换、积极/消极情感与创造力的关系,以及组织创造力支持感的调节作用。通过分析442对主管〖CD*2〗下属配对样本,结果表明：积极情感和消极情感在领导成员交换与创造力关系之间起部分中介作用;组织创造力支持感正向调节积极情感与创造力的关系,而对消极情感与创造力关系的负向调节作用不显著;最后,高的组织创造力支持感还调节积极/消极情感在领导成员交换与员工创造力关系间的中介作用。     

Fueling the fire: Examining identity centrality,affective interpersonal commitment and gender as drivers of entrepreneurial passion

Research on passion is burgeoning in the entrepreneurial literature, yet we still know little about what factors drive entrepreneurial passion. Recognizing the socially embedded nature of entrepreneurship, we examine identity-related social forces that may fuel the fire of entrepreneurial passion. Employing a lagged design that controls for known antecedents, we find different pathways driving harmonious versus obsessive entrepreneurial passion. We find that harmonious entrepreneurial passion is fueled by entrepreneurial identity centrality whereas obsessive entrepreneurial passion is fueled by affective interpersonal commitment. Interestingly, gender moderates both these relationships.     

The mitigating effect of matching regulatory focus with arousal-inducing stimuli in service failure situations

Service failures are pivotal touchpoints that can reduce customer satisfaction, encourage negative word-of-mouth, and ultimately impact a firm's market share. We advance a novel perspective that after a service failure occurs, matching incidental arousal-inducing stimuli to one's regulatory orientation can make the negative experience stemming from the service failure less deleterious. In three experiments (two stock out scenarios and one involving a rude salesperson), after a service failure, promotion-focused and prevention-focused individuals were exposed to high versus low arousal-inducing stimuli. Three approaches available to retailers were used to manipulate arousal levels: background pictures (Study 1), colors (Study 2), and music (Study 3). When high (low) incidental arousal-inducing stimuli were presented to those with a promotion (prevention) focus, this raised satisfaction, loyalty, and referral for brands compared to when promotion (prevention)-focused individuals were exposed to low (high) arousal-inducing stimuli. Changes in self-rated arousal and affect valence levels (arousal and valence levels were measured after the service failure and then after exposure to the incidental arousal-inducing stimuli) mediated the effect on these consumer behaviors. These insights extend theory by considering the combined effect of regulatory focus and affect. They also have practical relevance.     

Investigating the immediate and long-term effects of job stressors on frontline service employees

Two studies investigate the immediate and long-term effects of job stressors on frontline service employees (FSEs). Using cognitive appraisal theory, we develop and test a conceptual model of two job stressors (crowding and emotional labor) that affect coping strategies and job outcomes. Study 1, which is a field experiment, investigates the immediate effects of crowding in a single firm. Study 2 extends the findings of Study 1 and investigates the long-term effects of emotional labor and crowding on FSEs across multiple firms. The results show that crowding has a negative impact on coping strategies and job-related outcomes. In addition, emotional labor can lead to long-term negative outcomes, such as emotional exhaustion and decreased job retention, for some FSEs. Consequently, service organizations should consider strategies or tactics that prevent high levels of customer crowding and help FSEs deal with emotional labor.     

Why bad feelings predict good behaviours: The role of positive and negative anticipated emotions on consumer ethical decision making

Research suggests that emotions can greatly influence consumer decision making and behaviours. Notwithstanding, our understanding of the role of anticipated emotions in what is an inherently complex deliberation process—that of consumer ethics—is still quite limited. The present study thus aims to address this gap, in two key ways: first, by measuring the influence of positive and negative anticipated emotions at each stage of the consumer ethical decision making process; and second by describing the specific emotions that most affect each component of the consumer ethical deliberation process and assessing their relative weight in predicting decisions involving ethical issues. Through the examination of 603 ethical situations and using multiple regression analysis, the findings indicate that anticipated emotions can account for up to 59% of the variance in consumer decisions involving ethics. Anticipating the experience of negative emotions as a result of carrying out an unethical behaviour was the affective component found to most influence consumer ethical deliberation process; and anticipated guilt was the discrete emotion exerting the greatest effect on consumer decision making in ethical situations. The findings indicate that more than feeling good, consumers avoid feeling bad; such that ethically favourable decisions emerge to prevent experiencing negative emotions in the future.     

Take the money or run? Investors' ethical reputation and entrepreneurs' willingness to partner

Drawing on the multi-principal–agent perspective, this research models the influence of venture capitalists' reputation for ethical behavior on entrepreneurs' willingness to partner decisions. We test our model using a two-study design. Study one, a conjoint experiment, revealed that explicit knowledge of past unethical behavior negatively affects entrepreneurs' willingness to partner. Interaction effects revealed that factors previously shown to influence the entrepreneurs' evaluations—investor value-add and investment track record—become largely contingent upon and often subjugated by investors' ethical reputation. Study two, a traditional between-subjects scenario experiment, revealed that when entrepreneurs develop their own perceptions about the ethicality of an investor's prior behaviors, the ethical dimension remains highly influential. Further, we find that as the consequences of rejecting funding become more severe (e.g., possible bankruptcy), entrepreneurs become increasingly willing to partner with unethical investors. We also find that high fear of failure entrepreneurs are less willing to partner with unethical investors than their low fear of failure counterparts.     

道德关联品牌负面曝光事件溢出效应实证研究——事件类型与认知需求的交互作用

文章研究界定了产品性能型、公司道德型和道德引致产品性能型三类品牌负面曝光事件,引入消费者认知需求,运用自然实验法研究道德关联的两类品牌负面曝光事件对品类和竞争品牌溢出效应的差异性。研究结果显示对低认知需求者,道德引致产品性能型负面曝光事件对品类态度和竞争品牌购买意愿的负面溢出效应强于公司道德型事件;对高认知需求者,两类事件溢出效应没有显著差异;道德引致产品性能型负面曝光事件对低认知需求者品类和竞争品牌评价的影响大于高认知需求者,而公司道德型负面事件溢出对不同认知需求水平消费者的影响无显著差异。