I'll prove you wrong! The underdog effect as an antecedent to entrepreneurial action and venture persistence
基于心理逆反理论，研究负面社会情感刺激（如他人质疑）如何通过弱者效应（证明他人错误的需求）激发创业者的直接和间接行动，进而促进创业坚持。
We highlight the role that psychological reactance via the underdog effect (i.e., the need to prove others wrong) plays in eliciting direct and indirect entrepreneurial action. Drawing on psychological reactance theory (PRT), we examine how negative socio-emotional stimuli can result in a strong individual motivation for entrepreneurs to persist with their ventures. Further, we highlight entrepreneurial hustle (direct action), entrepreneurship-related media engagement (indirect action), and obsessive thinking (indirect action) as mediating mechanisms linking the underdog effect to venture persistence. We test our theory-driven model across three studies. Findings from two quasi-experiments (Study 1, N = 424; Study 2, N = 579) which include 15 post-hoc interviews with entrepreneurs as part of Study 2, as well as a time-lagged mediation model (Study 3, N = 417), provide strong evidence consistent with the inference that venture persistence is closely linked to the underdog effect. We discuss multiple theoretical and practical implications that our work illustrates, and we offer numerous future research directions. Executive summary Persistence is widely recognized as an essential quality for entrepreneurs to have, yet existing research primarily focuses on positive motivators such as passion, self-efficacy, and entrepreneurs' identity. Far less attention has been directed to how negative socio-emotional experiences, like doubt or discouragement, can also fuel entrepreneurial persistence. We add to our understanding of entrepreneurial persistence by elaborating on and testing theory related to underdog entrepreneurs. Specifically, we address the cognitive and self-regulatory aspects of entrepreneurs' motivation from seemingly disempowering external forces, and we explore how entrepreneurs' responses to such negative feedback can drive sustained action. Across three empirical studies and 15 interviews of entrepreneurs, we apply Psychological Reactance Theory (PRT) to explain how individuals are motivated to restore their freedom to act when they feel that their desired behavior is threatened (e.g., doubts of being a successful entrepreneur). We find strong support for our theory-driven model, showing that negative stakeholder feedback can elicit an “underdog effect,” motivating entrepreneurs to prove others wrong and ultimately leading to sustained entrepreneurial action (i.e., venture persistence). We find that this motivational process is influenced by the perceived credibility of the naysayer, where low perceived credibility relates to even higher levels of one's desire to prove the naysayer wrong. Finally, in testing our model, we show how the underdog effect translates to sustained action through the conceptual mediators of direct and indirect entrepreneurial action. Here, we highlight entrepreneurial hustle as a proxy of direct entrepreneurial action, and entrepreneurship-related media engagement and obsessive thinking about entrepreneurship as two indirect actions linking the underdog effect to venture persistence. Overall, our work provides a new motivational lens for understanding why and how entrepreneurs persist with their ventures. Findings from three empirical studies and a post-hoc analysis highlight how entrepreneurs' internal socio-affective responses towards adversity (i.e., external sources of disempowerment) can become a powerful motivational force to persist. Rather than discouraging entrepreneurs, we find evidence that underdog expectations can cause “boomerang effects” in entrepreneurs' behavior and ultimately sustain their determination to become successful entrepreneurs. This nuanced theoretical approach provides an extension to current theory on underdog entrepreneurs and a more complete view for how entrepreneurial motivation relates to entrepreneur action and venture persistence.