the effect of entrepreneur s’ perceived fear on personal and business performance in small manufacturing firms in gonabad

according to the importance of entrepreneurship, as an engine of economic growth, recognizing the factors that influence business performance is of paramount important. since entrepreneurship is a cognitive process and fear affects it, the present study explores the effect of entrepreneur s’ perceived fear on their personal and business performance. the research is applied in intend and employs descriptive-correlative method. the statistical population of the article includes the entrepreneurs of small manufacturing firms in gonabad county. by referring to industries and mines organization 147 entrepreneurs were identified among whom 105 individuals were randomly selected based on morgan’s table. data was gathered through likert scale questionnaires and was tested by structural equation modeling (sem) using lisrel software. the results indicated that there were negative direct relationships between fear of work/social stress, fear of not having enough personal and business performance. there was positively a direct relationship between fear of death/danger and personal and business performance. there was not a significant relationship between the other types of fear and performance.