The central role of entrepreneurial identity in shaping opportunity evaluation and opportunity development

Abstract

Entrepreneurial opportunities drive both venture creation and business performance, yet research has mostly studied opportunity recognition and exploitation while placing less concentration on the ways that assess and advance business opportunities. Moreover, although entrepreneurial identity has been identified as a key psychological driver of entrepreneurial behavior, little is known about how its distinct dimensions shape opportunity-related outcomes, particularly within resource-constrained and emerging economy contexts. While entrepreneurial identity is inherently motivational, it does not in itself explain how entrepreneurs regulate emotionladen judgments during opportunity evaluation and development. Entrepreneurial identity provides motivational direction, yet opportunity evaluation and development unfold in emotionally charged contexts characterised by uncertainty, risk, and ambiguity. Nevertheless, existing research has broadly conceptualized emotional intelligence as an immediate predictor of its antecedents, with less considering its theoretically significant role as a moderator of the way in which motivations grounded in identity are transformed into evaluative judgments and developmental actions. With the aim of addressing the identified gaps, this thesis explores the impact of entrepreneurial identity salience and centrality on opportunity evaluation and development, and the moderating effect of emotional intelligence on these relationships. Drawing on role identity theory and the entrepreneurial identity literature, this research conceptualises entrepreneurial identity as a multidimensional construct and advances a processoriented view of opportunity evaluation and development. The objective of this thesis is to shed light on how different aspects of entrepreneurial identity shape opportunity evaluation and development, as well as emotional intelligence as a moderating factor that shapes the expression of identity-driven motivation in challenging emotional contexts of entrepreneurship. A survey method is used to investigate 344 founder entrepreneurs in Jordan, where Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with confirmatory factor analysis is employed to verify the proposed models. For moderation effects, Z-standardized interaction terms in the SEM approach are used to ensure robustness and comparability of models. The results indicate that entrepreneurial identity salience and entrepreneurial identity centrality have different and differential effects on opportunity evaluation and opportunity development. Entrepreneurial identity salience is found to positively affect opportunity evaluation and opportunity development, and emotional intelligence plays a moderating role in these relationships in subtle ways. Emotional intelligence reduces the effect of identity salience on opportunity evaluation and increases its effect on opportunity development, implying that the effect of identity salience on opportunity development becomes less impulsive and more emotionally driven. Entrepreneurial identity centrality exhibits a strong positive relationship with opportunity evaluation, which is significantly reinforced by emotional intelligence. In contrast, emotional intelligence does not moderate the relationship between entrepreneurial identity centrality and opportunity development, suggesting that highly central identities may rely more on intrinsic commitment than on emotional regulation to sustain development activities. This thesis makes several important contributions. Theoretically, it contributes to the research on entrepreneurial identity by disentangling the concepts of salience and centrality and making an explicit connection to opportunity evaluation and development, rather than just opportunity recognition. Empirically, it provides evidence from an underexplored emerging economy context, highlighting the contingent role of emotional intelligence in identity– opportunity processes. Practically, the findings provide guidance for entrepreneurs, educators, and policymakers interested in promoting more reflective opportunity evaluations and continuous opportunity development to create programs that improve their decision-making skills through a better understanding of challenges in their institutional environment.