affect-as-information

An entrepreneur is someone is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services. An entrepreneur is also someone who wants to be his own boss and make a good living, which entails living where one wants, working with people one likes, and doing work one wants to do.

With Web 2.0 an increase in entrepreneurship was seen. Hardware became cheap, free open source infrastructure is the norm, access to the world with web 2.0 leading to a growth of entrepreneurs on the web. These entrepreneurs are often portrayed as passionate, enthusiastic, and persistent even in the face of challenge and adversity. They have to deliver high levels of effort in order to attain their success and increase sales and profit.

In the affect-as-information theory it is well documented that affect influences information processing, even when the cause of the affect is irrelevant to the current situation. However, the impact of this information component of affect on behavior is unclear. In other words, mood has an impact on information processing which is of importance for entrepreneurs. This mood also has an effect on behavior.

In a recent study in which 46 entrepreneurs used cell phones to provide reports on their affect, future temporal focus, and venture effort twice daily for 24 days, the effect of feelings on efforts was studied. It was found that with negative affect entrepreneurs’ effort is focused on tasks that need immediate attention or action. The study also found that positive affect predicts venture effort beyond what is immediately required and that this relationship is mediated by future temporal focus. In other words, when feeling good the entrepreneur is more capable of planning for the future.

This could mean that the entrepreneurs’ affect plays a significant role in the process of new venture creation.

It is precisely because positive affect signals that things are going well at the moment that the entrepreneur’s focus can shift to the future, and such focus motivates the entrepreneur to work harder because it promotes behaviors to achieve desired future outcomes.

Foo, M., Uy, M., & Baron, R. (2009). How do feelings influence effort? An empirical study of entrepreneurs’ affect and venture effort. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94 (4), 1086-1094 DOI: 10.1037/a0015599