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Received: 8 August 2022 Revised: 22 August 2023 Accepted: 23 August 2023
DOI: 10.1111/peps.12618
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Unpacking the nonlinear effect of self-efficacy in
entrepreneurship: Why and under which condition
more is not better
Marilyn A. Uy1Shuhua Sun2Michael M. Gielnik3
Gabriel Henry Jacob4John Luis D. Lagdameo5
Armando G. Miclat Jr.5Enrico C. Osi5
1Division of Strategy, International Business,
and Entrepreneurship, Nanyang Business
School, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore, Singapore
2Department of Management, Freeman School
of Business, Tulane University,New Orleans,
Louisiana, USA
3Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Institute of
Strategic HR Management, Lüneburg,
Germany
4Division of Strategy, International Business,
and Entrepreneurship, Nanyang Business
School, Nanyang Technological University and
Asian Pastoral Institute, Singapore, Singapore
5Department of Marketing and Law, and
Department of Leadership and Strategy,John
Gokongwei School of Management, Ateneo de
Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines
Correspondence
Marilyn A. Uy, Division of Strategy,
International Business, and Entrepreneurship,
Nanyang Business School, Nanyang
TechnologicalUniversity, ABS-05-076, 91
Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639956,
Singapore.
Email: muy@ntu.edu.sg
Abstract
Self-efficacy exerts a positive impact on several self-
regulatory functions to support goal accomplishment and
performance. However, in contexts that are characterized by
uncertainty and ambiguity, such as entrepreneurship, there
might be a tipping point to this relationship, prompting calls
for deeper investigations on the nonlinear effect. In partic-
ular, the underlying mechanisms explaining why and when
the nonlinear effect occurs are unclear. Drawing on the-
ories of self-regulation, we examine the nonlinear effect
of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on venture goal progress
through the entrepreneur’s active feedback-seeking and
venture effort. We also propose that the entrepreneur’s
state error mastery orientation moderates the nonlinear
effect. Conducting a six-wave repeated measures study
among 84 early-stage entrepreneurs in a business acceler-
ator in the Philippines, we use a within-person approach
to test our hypotheses and research model. Results sug-
gest that self-regulatory mechanisms in terms of feedback
seeking, effort, and state error mastery orientation help to
unpack why and when self-efficacy exerts a nonlinear effect
on performance outcomes.
Personnel Psychology. 2024;77:81–108. © 2023 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 81wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/peps