The purpose of this study is to better understand whether emotional aspects affect entrepreneurs’ and owner-managers’ decisions in investment situations when escalation of commitment can be observed and where the level of uncertainty was also added to the emotional aspect. The study was performed using conjoint analysis (a.k.a stated preference technique) and yielded following results: positive emotions (self-confidence, challenge, and hope) increase the decision-maker’s propensity to escalate commitment. Negative emotions (embarrassment and strain) do not, on the other hand, make the entrepreneur prone to escalate. The result remains the same for all positive emotions where an increasing level of uncertainty tends to make the entrepreneur more prone to escalate. Strain and embarrassment, under high uncertainty, decrease the tendency to escalate. All results are significant except for frustration that does not show any significant relationship. The combination of cognitive decision theories and emotional theories enhances our knowledge about the emotive side of entrepreneurs’ motives to escalate. The results also enable us to supplement and refine existing theories on self-justification.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Centre for Innovation Systems, Entrepreneurship and Growth, Jönköping International Business School in its series CISEG Working Papers Series with number
3.
Length: 20 pages Date of creation: 05 Dec 2008 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:hhs:hjiseg:0003
Contact details of provider: Postal: CISEG (Centre for Innovation Systems, Entrepreneurship and Growth), Jönköping International Business School, P.O. Box 1026, SE-551 11 Jönköping, Sweden Web page: http://www.ihh.hj.se/eng/
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Katarina Blåman).
Find related papers by JEL classification: M19 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Business Administration - - - Other
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: