Research On The Influence Of Entrepreneurial Anxiety On Entrepreneurial Behavior

Since the 70 th anniversary of the founding of People's Republic of China,the economy has developed by leaps and bounds.The magnificent history of Chinese economic is also a collection of contributions from every entrepreneur.From 1949 to 2014,entrepreneurial activities in China can be divided into several stages,including planned economy entrepreneurship,grassroots-led entrepreneurship,elite-led entrepreneurship,and Internet entrepreneurship(Zhu Chengliang & Lei Jianxiao,2020).In all stages,entrepreneurship played a key role in economic development,for example,it helps to realize the national economy from scratch,to break through the planned economic system,to promote the prosperity of the nonpublic economy,and to active Internet startups.President Xi stated that our economic has stepped into the "new normal" stage in May 2014,which means there will be more uncertainty in business environment.In September 2014,Premier Li pointed out "mass entrepreneurship and innovation" are crucial to realize the transformation of economic energy and solve the problems in the “new normal” stage.The raising of "mass innovation and entrepreneurship" give entrepreneurial activities a new historical mission,and it also symbolizes that Chinese entrepreneurship has entered the stage of mass entrepreneurship.In 2018,daily average number of new established enterprises exceeded 18,000 every day,and the total number of entrepreneurships exceeded 100 million.China is the country with the highest entrepreneurial vitality in the world.The number of entrepreneurial research is increasing with the development of entrepreneurial activities in full swing.Due to the high uncertainty and high self-interest relevance of entrepreneurship,entrepreneurial emotion has become an important topic in entrepreneurial micro research.Scholars are devoted to revealing the emotional antecedents of entrepreneurs' cognition and behavior,and contributing to find out the near-end driving factors of entrepreneurial activities.Existing entrepreneurial emotion research has focused on positive emotions,negative emotions,entrepreneurial passion,fear of failure,and grief of failure(Baron,2008;Foo et al.,2009;Murnieks et al.,2020;Shepherd,2009)? However,as one of the most salient entrepreneurial emotion,the research of entrepreneurial anxiety is still lacking(Thompson et al.,2020).Recently,Thompson et al.(2020)proposed the concept of entrepreneurial anxiety and regarded it as an independent construct.They pointed out that entrepreneurial anxiety is diffused throughout the entrepreneurial process,thereby they called on scholars to pay attention to the research of entrepreneurial anxiety.However,we have limited understanding of the definition and structural dimensions of entrepreneurial anxiety,and how it affects entrepreneurial behaviors.In order to solve the out of sync problem between theoretical research and entrepreneurial practice,we did three sub-studies: 1)Developing an entrepreneurial anxiety scale.After reviewed the literature of situational anxiety,we clarified the definition and dimensions of entrepreneurial anxiety,and provided a measurement tool.By doing so we answered the basic question of what entrepreneurial anxiety is.2)Researching on the facilitate mechanism of entrepreneurial anxiety.Draw on the processing efficiency theory,we introduced threat alertness and self-regulation as mediators and core self-evaluation as moderator,we developed an mediating model of entrepreneurial anxiety affecting entrepreneurial effort,and uncovered bright side of entrepreneurial anxiety.By doing so,we answered the question of how and when entrepreneurial anxiety activate the entrepreneurial efforts.3)Researching on the debilitate mechanism of entrepreneurial anxiety.Draw on the person-environment fit theory,we introduced risk avoidance and emotional exhaustion as mediators and habituation as moderator,we developed an mediating model of entrepreneurial anxiety affecting entrepreneurial persistence,and uncovered dark side of entrepreneurial anxiety.By doing so,we answered the question of how and when entrepreneurial anxiety hinder entrepreneurial persistence.Based on the data from MBAs,nascent entrepreneurs,and serial entrepreneurs,the empirical research results show that: 1)Entrepreneurial anxiety is a two-dimensional conception,including negative emotion experience and cognitive worry,which can be captured by 9-items scale.2)Entrepreneurial anxiety has positive effects on entrepreneurial efforts,in which threat alertness and self-regulation play as a mediator.Moreover,core self-evaluation plays boundary effect on positive effect of entrepreneurial anxiety.Entrepreneurs with high level of core self-evaluation are more likely to be affected by the positive effects of entrepreneurial anxiety,and thus show a high level of entrepreneurial efforts.3)Entrepreneurial anxiety has negative effects on entrepreneurial persistence,in which risk avoidance and emotional exhaustion play as mediators.Moreover,habitations plays boundary effect on negative effect of entrepreneurial anxiety.Entrepreneurs with low level of habitation are more likely to be affected by the negative effects of entrepreneurial anxiety,and thus show a low level of entrepreneurial persistence.We have many contributions: 1),we fill up the gaps in entrepreneurial anxiety research.This thesis is one of the earlier studies that paid attention to entrepreneurial anxiety,and we provide the definition,dimensional structure and measurement of entrepreneurial anxiety.2)we introduces new research ideas in entrepreneurial emotion research.By developing the "double-sided" mechanism model of entrepreneurial anxiety,we expand the current cognition that entrepreneurial emotion can only play a single positive/negative role.3)By studying the boundary effect of core self-evaluation,it clarifies the boundary conditions of emotional effects and expands the existing entrepreneurial emotional view.4)we added dynamic factors into the previous static entrepreneurial emotion research framework.By exploring the boundary effect of habituation,we found that the role of entrepreneurial emotion will change over time,and thus expanding previous static entrepreneurial emotion research model.Generally speaking,we provides some important insights for the entrepreneurial anxiety research,broadens and deepens the existing research on entrepreneurial emotion,entrepreneurial behavior,entrepreneur' characteristics and entrepreneurial experience.Research has strong practical contributions to improve entrepreneurial persistence,encourage entrepreneurial efforts and enhance entrepreneurs' subjective well-being.Finally,the limitation and future research are discussed.