The Effect Of Regulatory Focus On Entrepreneurial Oppor-Tunities Evaluation And Realization

Entrepreneurs are often faced with in highly dynamic and unpredictable environ-ments in which there are few external guides for their decisions or actions.A lack of guidance implies that entrepreneurs must rely primarily on internal resources.One of these resources they depend on is self-regulation to successfully navigate the complex environments in which they work.Individuals would display promotion orientation or prevention orientation in pursuit of their goals.A promotion-focused orientation tends to center on hopes and aspirations when regulating behavior,resulting in motivation by accomplishments and salient outcomes of gains(positive and desired)or nongains(neg-ative and undesired).Prevention-focused individuals attend to obligation and account-ability in the regulation of behavior,resulting in motivation to prevent mistakes,per-ception of salient outcomes as nonloss(positive and desired)or loss(negative and un-desired).We advanced a model that highlights contingent linkages between regulatory focus,entrepreneurial opportunities evaluation and the successful realization of venture opportunities.To examine the effects of regulatory focus on entrepreneurial opportunities eval-uation,the questionnaire were given to 239 MBA students while 183 questionnaires were completed and received.According to data analysis,some relevant methods,such as multiple linear regression models,were used to examine the hypotheses deriving from the conceptual model.Results suggest that promotion focus is positively related to entrepreneurial opportunities evaluation,and prevention focus is not related to entre-preneurial opportunities evaluation.However,risk perception moderates the relation-ship between prevention focus and entrepreneurial opportunities evaluation:when risk perception is low,the relationship between prevention focus and entrepreneurial oppor-tunities evaluation is significant negatively.To examine the effects of regulatory focus on entrepreneurial opportunities reali-zation,two decision making modes distinguished as effectuation and causation are used to explain opportunities realization process.Totally 239 questionnaires were sent out online or offline,while only 170 entrepreneurs who formed their venture ranging from 2006 to 2016 completed the survey.According to data analysis,some relevant methods,such as explorative factor analysis,confirmatory factor analysis,and multiple linear regression models,were used to examine the hypotheses deriving from the conceptual model.The findings are shown as follows:(1)promotion focus is positively related to use of effectuation principles(experimentation,flexibility,pre-commitment,and af-fordable loss)and causation.Prevention focus is positively related to use of causation,pre-commitment principle and affordable loss principle.(2)use of causation and ex-perimentation principle significantly promote venture performance.However,use of flexibility,pre-commitment and affordable loss principle do not significantly predict venture performance.(3)promotion focus enhances venture performance via use of causation and experimentation principle.(4)the combined use of causation and exper-imentation principle is positively associated with venture performance,while other in-teraction terms do not yield significant results.(5)In highly dynamic environments,use of experimentation and flexibility principle has a positive effect on venture perfor-mance.In stable environments,use of flexibility principle would harm venture perfor-mance.And,in such environment,the combined use of causation and affordable loss principle could enhance venture performance.Finally,in dynamic environments,the combined use of causation and flexibility principle has a positive effect on venture per-formance.The dissertation has made some contributions to research on entrepreneurship.Firstly,regulatory focus theory is introduced to entrepreneurial opportunities evalua-tion context and verified its importance to entrepreneurship.The findings urge future research pay more attention to the role of motivation in entrepreneurial decision mak-ing.Secondly,the study linked regulatory focus to causation and effectuation principles to clarify the distinction between the individual effectuation principles.Our study not only makes a difference whether decision makers pursue an effectuation or causation approach,but also which effectuation principles they choose.Thirdly,the study reveals the synergistic effects of causation and effectuation on venture performance and bound-ary conditions of the effects.The findings contribute to entrepreneurship research by providing a dynamic perspective on the relationship between decision logics and ven-ture performance.The structure of the dissertation is shown follows.Chapter one makes a review about this research's key issues,and introduces the study contents,methods and theo-retical implications et al.This chapter also represents the systematic framework.Chap-ter two is the part of literature review and summarizes the application of regulatory focus to entrepreneurship research and the theoretical bases of the study.Chapter three is the part of theoretical development and model development and proposes hypotheses.Chapter four is the part of empirical study and introduces the sample,procedure and measures of the study.Chapter five suggests the results of the study and also makes a discussion.Chapter six summarizes previous study conclusions and expounds the study's contribution and offer important insights to entrepreneurship education and practice.Finally,future directions and limitations are provided.