Emotional intelligence & tourism social entrepreneurship

Tourism social entrepreneurship amplifies the emotional demands placed on entrepreneurs who navigate diverse stakeholders while balancing social and economic goals. Yet, emotional intelligence remains underexplored in this context. We propose a multilevel framework linking emotional intelligence (through trait, ability, and mixed models) to the social entrepreneurial process. Trait-emotional intelligence shapes social intent, ability-emotional intelligence sustains stakeholder engagement through emotional perception and regulation, and mixed-emotional intelligence manifests in behavioral competencies such as collaboration and adaptability. Three propositions position ability-emotional intelligence as central to emotionally informed decision-making, negotiation, and resilience under a hybrid logic. The framework establishes a research agenda for examining how emotional intelligence enables tourism social entrepreneurs to sustain their ventures and create enduring social value.