How does Prosocial Motivation Affect Entrepreneurial Persistence:The Role of Intuition and Environmental Uncertainty
The progress of society not only requires higher entrepreneurial vitality,but also expects entrepreneurs'be-haviors and decisions to benefit more groups.As an important motivation of social expectation,prosocial motivation of caring for others'well-being profoundly affects entrepreneurs'psychological state and behaviors.However,the research on the relationship between entrepreneurs'prosocial motivation and entrepreneurial persistence is relatively insufficient,espe-cially the relationship between business entrepreneurs'prosocial motivation and entrepreneurial persistence is not yet clear.As a key prerequisite for the survival,development and even success of enterprises,entrepreneurial persistence involves the well-being of partners,employees,customers and other groups.Therefore,it is of great theoretical and practical signifi-cance to clarify the relationship,mediating mechanism and boundary conditions between business entrepreneurs'prosocial motivation and entrepreneurial persistence.Based on the theory of motivated information processing model and social cognitive theory,this study constructs a moderated mediation model to explore how business entrepreneurs'prosocial motivation influence entrepreneurial persis-tence.Specifically,we investigate the mediating role of intuition and the moderating role of environmental uncertainty.Mature scales from authoritative journal papers are selected as the source of the measurement scales of variables in this study.We use questionnaire survey method to collect questionnaires from business entrepreneurs in Tianjin,Anhui,Sichuan,Guangdong and other places.Through strict data screening methods,236 valid questionnaires are retained.And then,we use PROCESS program and Bootstrap method to operate data to test theoretical hypotheses.The results show that the direct and indirect effects of prosocial motivation on entrepreneurial persistence exist simultaneously and the ef-fects are moderated by environmental uncertainty.Specifically:Prosocial motivation has a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial persistence;Intuition plays a part of the mediating role;Environmental uncertainty negatively moderates the relationship between prosocial motivation and intuition,and further negatively moderate the mediating effect of intu-ition between prosocial motivation and entrepreneurial persistence.The research findings clarify the relationship between prosocial motivation and entrepreneurial persistence.Theoreti-cal advancement about this research is mainly formed in the following aspects:Firstly,it clarifies the relationship between entrepreneurs'prosocial motivation and entrepreneurial persistence,which not only answers Shepherd's(2015)call for expanding the research on prosocial motivation in the field of entrepreneurship,but also promotes the exploration of entre-preneurs'prosocial motivation in the context of commercial entrepreneurship.Secondly,by exploring the mediating role of intuition,it not only reveals the"black box"of how prosocial motivation affects entrepreneurial persistence,but also en-riches the prosocial motivation'influencing mechanism researches.Finally,this paper is based on the basic logic of inter-nal factors and situational factors interaction function,this paper verifies the moderating effect of environmental uncertain-ty on the effect of prosocial motivation on entrepreneurial persistence.It reveals the boundary condition of prosocial motivation affecting entrepreneurial persistence,shows that individual factors of entrepreneurs and the external environ-ment act on the behavior together.Based on the research results,entrepreneurs in practice should be aware that prosocial motivation is an important psychological resource and quality for entrepreneurs'behaviors and decisions.Therefore,entrepreneurs should pay atten-tion to their prosocial motivation when selecting partners,and strengthen the interaction between entrepreneurs and stakeholders in daily work to stimulate prosocial motivation.Secondly,entrepreneurs should recognize the importance of information processing methods and appropriately use intuition to judge external information.Finally,environmental uncertainty is an important contingency factor for entrepreneurial persistence.Government should create a favorable envi-ronment for entrepreneurship,and entrepreneurs should also remain alert to the external environment and keenly aware of changes in industry dynamics and customer needs.
万方数据
维普
