Keynote for the DARE research seminar on May 27, 2021.

1. a.schmitt@rug.nl
Psychology of entrepreneurship:
Psychology of entrepreneurship:
Psychology of entrepreneurship:
Psychology of entrepreneurship:
Review and future directions
Review and future directions
Review and future directions
Review and future directions
Key
Key
Key
Key note
note
note
note presentation
presentation
presentation
presentation for
for
for
for the
the
the
the DARE seminar May 2021
DARE seminar May 2021
DARE seminar May 2021
DARE seminar May 2021
Dr. Marjan Gorgievski
Work and Organizational Psychology
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
Thursday, May 27, 2021

2. My research journey
in a nutshell
International network INPERE, 2004 – 2015
Ph.D. Study Utrecht University 1997 - 2002
Entrepreneurship
•Wellbeing and
performance
•Values approach to
success and intentions
•business owner-
employee cross-over
effects
•Entrepreneurs’ passion
vs. workaholism
More generally
•Employee
intrapreneurship
•Innovative behavior
•Work life balance
•Stress and recovery
Dept. W O Psychology, EUR 2002 –
Associate editor APIR, 2019 –

3. Relevance of entrepreneurial activity (GEM)

4. Entrepreneurs’
own definitions
of success
Brief
history;
highs and
lows
• Psychologists began entrepreneurship research, which
was mainly personality psychology (McClelland, 1961)
• Disappointment, “who is an entrepreneur is the wrong
question” (Gartner and colleagues, 1988 – 1994)
• “Putting the entrepreneur back in entrepreneurship”
with new questions (Baum et al., 2007).
Why do some and not others:
• Recognize opportunities?
• Become entrepreneurs and exploit opportunities?
• Organize rapidly, grow, innovate, be successful?
• Several calls for action for psychology
• e.g., “Party on” (Shepherd, 2007) on
Microfoundations of entrepreneurial behavior

5. Entrepreneurs’
own definitions
of success
Entrepreneurs’
definitions of
success
Gorgievski, Ascalon & Stephan (2011);
Wach, Stephan & Gorgievski (2016)

6. Topical Themes in Psychology of
Entrepreneurship Research
Health and Well-being
Method: narrative review of psychology journals with IF > 1.5 past 5 years. Entrepreneur(ship),
small business owner(ship), self-employed.
Gorgievski & Stephan (2016)

7. Entrepreneurs’
own definitions
of success
Research
Framework
Tentative research framework for psychology of entrepreneurship
research based on the review (Gorgievski & Stephan, 2016)

8. Entrepreneurs’
own definitions
of success
Need for
sound
theoretical
Underpinning
Multidisciplinary, so know your literatures
For example:
• Cognitive psychology and social cognition:
• E.g., biases and heuristics that enable functioning in dynamic, complex,
unpredictable environments (Baron, 2000);
• Action theoretical perspective
• e.g., Amsterdam – Giessen model (Rauch and Frese, 2000), opening the
black box between personality and success through goal setting and
action strategies.
• Entrepreneurial Intentions
• Theory of planned behavior (TPB) and Shapero’s model of Entrepreneurial
Event (SEE), (Krueger, 2000)
• Job design and occupational health models
• Entrepreneurial Job demand resources model (Dijkhuizen et al. 2016)
• Transactional stress approach/ Conservation of Resources model
• Identity, passion literature
• Entrepreneurial passion, related to entrepreneurial roles (Cardon et al.,
2009, Newman et al., 2021)

9. Entrepreneurs’
own definitions
of success
Specific
example:
Subjective,
but anchored
Stress models meet in entrepreneurship research
Theoretical premises of our entrepreneurial stress research:
1) Lazarus and Folkman’s Transactional stress approach: Individuals
appraisals are at the core of the stress process
• Primary appraisal -> irrelevant, benign positive, harm/loss or challenge.
• Secondary appraisal: do I have the resources to cope?
2) Cavanaugh and colleagues’ challenge hindrance framework: are
certain demands challenges or hindrances?
3) Hobfoll’s conservation of resources theory: Individual differences
and temporal changes in the appraisal of demands are expected to
be a function of business owners’ resource levels and ecological
conditions that are anchored in an objective reality (Hobfoll et al.,
2018).
Jumelet, Gorgievski, & Bakker, 2020

10. Entrepreneurs’
own definitions
of success
In other
words… In other words, some peoples’ challenges really are other peoples’
threats or hindrances, even though it is not always as expected.

11. Entrepreneurs’
own definitions
of success
How demands are appraised
Jumelet, Gorgievski, & Bakker, 2020

12. Entrepreneurs’
own definitions
of success
What
for the
future?
Note: From Van Gelderen, Wiklund, McMullen, online first,
Page 5.

13. Entrepreneurs’
own definitions
of success
What
for the
future?
The field is maturing in terms of increased academic rigor, asking
for methodologies that are capable of capturing the complexity of
phenomena (Kuckertz & Prochotta, 2018):

14. Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Email: Gorgievski@essb.eur.nl
https://www.eur.nl/people/Marjan-Gorgievski-Duijvesteijn
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marjan-Gorgievski

15. References
Baron, R. A. (2000). Psychological Perspectives on Entrepreneurship : Cognitive and Social Factors in Entrepreneurs' Success,
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 15-18
Baum, J.R., Frese, M. & Baron, R. (2007). The Psychology of Entrepreneurship. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associations.
Cardon, M. S., Wincent, J., Singh, J., & Drnovsek, M. (2009). The nature and experience of entrepreneurial passion. Academy of
Management Review, 34(3), 511–532.
Dijkhuizen, J., Gorgievski, M.J., Veldhoven, M.J.P.M. van & Schalk, M.J.D. (2016). Feeling successful as an entrepreneur: a job
demands - resources approach. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 12 (2), 555-573. Gorgievski, M.J.,
Ascalon, M.E. & Stephan, U. (2011). Small business owners' success criteria, a values approach to personal differences. Journal
of Small Business Management, 49, 207-232.
Gorgievski, M.J. & Stephan, U. (2016). Advancing the Psychology of Entrepreneurship: A Review of the Psychological Literature
and an Introduction. Applied Psychology, 65 (3), 437-468.
Jumelet, J.M., Gorgievski , M.J. & Bakker, A.B. (2020). Understanding Business Owners’ Challenge and Hindrance Appraisals.
Journal of Managerial Psychology, (ahead of print).
Krueger, N. F., Jr., Reilly, M. D., & Carsrud, A. L. (2000). Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business
Venturing, 15, 411-432.
Kuckertz, A. & Prochotta, P. (2018) What’s Hot in Entrepreneurship Research 2018? Hohenheim Entrepreneurship Research
Brief, No. 4
Newman, A., Obschonka, M., Moeller, J., Chandan, G. G. (2021). Entrepreneurial Passion: A Review, Synthesis, and Agenda for
Future Research. Applied Psychology, 70 (2), 816–860
Rauch, A. and Frese, M. (2000) ‘Psychological approaches to entrepreneurial success: A general model and an overview of
findings’, International review of industrial and organizational psychology, 15, 101–142.
Shepherd, D. (2015) Party On! A call for entrepreneurship research that is more interactive, activity based, cognitively hot,
compassionate, and prosocial. Journal of Business Venturing 30, 489–507.
Van Gelderen M, Wiklund J, McMullen JS. (online first). Entrepreneurship in the Future: A Delphi Study of ETP and JBV Editorial
Board Members. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. May 2021.
Wach, D., Stephan, U. & Gorgievski, M.J. (2016). More than money: Developing an integrative multi-factorial measure of
entrepreneurial success. International Small Business Journal, 34 (8), 1098-1121.