Does Happiness Launch More Businesses? Affect, Gender, and Entrepreneurial Intention

Gloria Sweida and Cynthia L. Sherman
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Gloria Sweida: School of Business, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL 62026, USA
Cynthia L. Sherman: Martin V. Smith School of Business & Economics, California State University Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA 93012, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-16

Abstract: In one of the first studies to examine how positive affect, negative affect, gender, and gender roles interact with entrepreneurial intention, we conducted an online survey of 849 adults from the western, midwestern, and southern regions of the United States. A higher positive affect was associated with greater intention to start a business, however, lower levels of negative affect were not. As in previous studies, women showed less entrepreneurial intention than men, however, the presence of positive affect had a larger positive impact on women’s entrepreneurial intention than men’s. Contrary to expectations, acceptance of traditional gender roles interacted with entrepreneurial intention such that women’s entrepreneurial intention increased as their support of traditional gender roles increased, and for men, entrepreneurial intention decreased slightly as acceptance of traditional gender roles increased.

Keywords: positive affect; negative affect; entrepreneurial intention; gender; gender roles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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