Feel the commitment: From situational emotional information to venture goal commitment

Abstract

An individual’s commitment stimulates action, but we know little about how entrepreneurial commitment initially emerges. Utilising affect-as-information and the appraisal theory, our objective is to investigate the influence of situational emotional information on the venture goal commitment of individuals, defined as commitment to the goal of starting a new venture. Based on a correlational pilot study and an experimental scenario approach, we first link encouragement and discouragement provided by the individual’s parents and friends to venture goal commitment and test the mediating role of opportunity evaluation. Second, we find that emotional intelligence plays a moderating role in the relationship between situational emotional information and venture goal commitment as mediated through opportunity evaluation. Overall, our research underscores the emotional and cognitive mechanisms that shape venture goal commitment by explaining how and under which conditions situational emotional information is internalised and venture goal commitment emerges.