Entrepreneurs' Negative Emotion Differentiation From the Job Demands Perspective: Implications for Work Engagement and Entrepreneurial Orientation

ABSTRACT

Negative emotion differentiation—the capacity to make fine‐grained distinctions between discrete negative emotions—plays a foundational role in adaptive emotion regulation, psychological well‐being, and effective goal pursuit. Despite its theoretical and practical significance, research on this emotional competency within entrepreneurship remains nascent. Integrating an experience sampling methodology with a 2‐year time‐lagged design, this study investigated the antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurs' negative emotion differentiation. Results demonstrated that stressor variability—rather than mean levels of stressors—undermines negative emotion differentiation, which in turn positively predicts both work engagement and entrepreneurial orientation. These findings advance theoretical understanding of entrepreneurial emotions, stressor dynamics, and their downstream implications for well‐being and performance outcomes.