Emotional Certainty & Domain Specificity of Entrepreneurial Decisions

Abstract

Before deciding on a new business venture, individuals might narrow their options down to a portfolio of business opportunities from which to select one or more options. These options can be from a single industry (domain-specific portfolios) or from multiple industries or fields (domain-general portfolios). In this dissertation, I tested whether the level of certainty associated with the emotions that individuals are experiencing influences the domain specificity of the business opportunity portfolios that they select. Findings from three studies using the experimental causal chain design indicated that experiencing emotional certainty led people to think abstractly, which in turn led them to consider related business ideas from similar domains rather than diverse ideas from different domains, and that this relationship was mediated by their construal level. These findings indicate that an individual?s emotional state can inadvertently guide entrepreneurial decision making and thereby influence business paths and outcomes.