Entrepreneurial stressors as information: An integrated cognitive framework of strategic action

How and when do entrepreneurial stressors shape strategic action? Integrating Dual Information Processing Theory with the entrepreneurial Job Demands-Resources model, we advance a “stressor-as-information” perspective to develop an integrated moderated mediation framework in which entrepreneurial stressors indirectly influence strategic entrepreneurial behaviors via strategic decision comprehensiveness, with work engagement and firm performance serving as key boundary conditions. Using multi-informant, multi-wave survey data from 283 entrepreneurs and their co-founders, we find support for the proposed model. While acknowledging that cognitive processes are inferred through behavioral manifestations, our findings suggest that moving beyond purely motivational accounts of entrepreneurial stress can enrich understanding of how and when the pressures inherent to entrepreneurship translate into strategic processes and offer new insights into the micro-foundations of strategic entrepreneurship.

JEL codes: L26 .