How Affect Relates to Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Review of the Literature and Research Agenda

• Published in: International journal of management reviews : IJMR 2015-04, Vol.17 (2), p.191-211
• Main Authors: Delgado García, Juan Bautista, De Quevedo Puente, Esther, Blanco Mazagatos, Virginia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cognitive ability; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Operations research; Organization development; Studies; Systematic review
• ISSN: 1460-8545; 1468-2370
• DOI: 10.1111/ijmr.12058

The study of how affect relates to entrepreneurship has become a relevant topic of research in recent years. Unfortunately, such rapid developments have led to theoretical inconsistencies and empirical gaps that could result in an incomplete understanding of entrepreneurship's affective dimensions. To address these issues and motivate future work, the authors conducted a systematic review of 65 articles on the role of affect in entrepreneurship. The results show that research has focused on the valence facet of affect, has paid little attention to affect's role beyond the individual level of analysis, and has devoted more attention to the consequences of affect than to its antecedents. The results also show that unbalanced attention has been paid to affect's role in different stages of the entrepreneurial process. Building on these analyses, the authors propose a research agenda that not only encourages investigations of previously overlooked topics and facets of affect, but also stresses the potential of examining competing cognitive and non‐cognitive arguments relating to affect's role. The authors also encourage future investigations of affect's role across levels of analysis and stages of the entrepreneurial process.