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. 2020 Sep 21;17(18):6908.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17186908.

Does Happiness Launch More Businesses? Affect, Gender, and Entrepreneurial Intention

Gloria Sweida  1 , Cynthia L Sherman  2
Affiliations

Does Happiness Launch More Businesses? Affect, Gender, and Entrepreneurial Intention

Gloria Sweida et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

In one of the first studies to examine how positive affect, negative affect, gender, and gender roles interact with entrepreneurial intention, we conducted an online survey of 849 adults from the western, midwestern, and southern regions of the United States. A higher positive affect was associated with greater intention to start a business, however, lower levels of negative affect were not. As in previous studies, women showed less entrepreneurial intention than men, however, the presence of positive affect had a larger positive impact on women's entrepreneurial intention than men's. Contrary to expectations, acceptance of traditional gender roles interacted with entrepreneurial intention such that women's entrepreneurial intention increased as their support of traditional gender roles increased, and for men, entrepreneurial intention decreased slightly as acceptance of traditional gender roles increased.

Keywords: entrepreneurial intention; gender; gender roles; negative affect; positive affect.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Model of positive and negative affect, gender, gender roles, and entrepreneurial intent.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Interaction of positive affect and gender on entrepreneurial intention.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Interaction of Gender and Gender Norms on EINT.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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