To Be Happy: A Case Study of Entrepreneurial Motivation and Entrepreneurial Process from the Perspective of Positive Psychology

Xiaohua Su, Shengmei Liu, Shujun Zhang and Lingling Liu
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Xiaohua Su: School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510000, China
Shengmei Liu: School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510000, China
Shujun Zhang: School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510000, China
Lingling Liu: School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510000, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 2, 1-27

Abstract: The pursuit of wealth maximization is considered to be the greatest driving force of entrepreneurship. However, this economic rational perspective cannot sufficiently answer why potential or continuous entrepreneurs still choose entrepreneurship or even continuous entrepreneurship in the face of high failure rate and tremendous uncertainty. On the basis of the dynamic process of entrepreneurship and the perspective of positive psychology, this study attempts to interpret the sustained motivation mechanism of entrepreneurs. This study uses multiple cases to investigate the emotion, cognition, and behavior of entrepreneurial process. Through NVivo software and emotion dictionary, more than 27,000 micro blogs (Weibo) of six entrepreneurs were analyzed, and the model of positive emotion in entrepreneurial process was constructed. The findings are as follows. (1) In the process of establishing a business, entrepreneurs can persist in a highly uncertain environment by acquiring positive emotions. That is, the motivation of sustainable entrepreneurship originates from the emotion of happiness and satisfaction that entrepreneurs obtain. (2) Positive emotions affect the formation and expansion of key activities of entrepreneurship through cognition and then persist with entrepreneurship. Specifically, positive emotion promotes the formation of entrepreneurial intention by expanding cognitive structure, intuitive processing, and analytical processing to promote the acquisition of entrepreneurial resources and the expansion of entrepreneurial ability. (3) In the process of entrepreneurship, emotional return is a performance dimension parallel to economic return. This conclusion provides a new perspective towards revealing the entrepreneurial motivation of entrepreneurs in highly ambiguous environments.

Keywords: entrepreneurial motivation; entrepreneurial cognition; positive emotion; entrepreneurship insist (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:584-:d:308127

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