Negative emotions of an entrepreneurial career: Self-employment and regulatory coping behaviors

Article history: Received 10 February 2009 Received in revised form 19 August 2009 Accepted 24 August 2009 Available online 26 September 2009 Although we know a great deal about the relationship between self-employment and the experience of positive emotions such as passion, excitement, happiness, satisfaction, and flow, there is some research that suggests that the self-employed may be more susceptible than employees to negative emotions such as stress, fear of failure, loneliness, mental strain, and grief. We draw on the literature on role requirements to develop a model of career pursuit based on individuals' willingness and abilities to regulate these emotions. Using a nation-wide survey of more than 2700 US citizens we show that over and above the effects of positive emotions, the self-employed experienced fewer negative emotions than those who are employed, contingent on their regulatory coping behaviors. We discuss implications of these results for the literature on entrepreneurial emotions. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.