The causal exploration of digital entrepreneurial psychological capital configurations based on fsQCA

Abstract

The COVID-19 brings about a great quantity of digital entrepreneurs in China. In the fierce competition, positive psychological capital can better help them adjust emotions, cognition and behavior. However, little is known of how to improve the digital entrepreneurial psychological capital (DEPC). To fill this gap, this paper explored the configurations to promote DEPC. Based on the key psychological resources theory, a configurational framework which encompasses the antecedent conditions of self-regulation, entrepreneurial learning, family support and entrepreneurial environment is proposed. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze the survey data of 238 digital entrepreneurs in China, specifically, there are 4 recipes for resulting in high DEPC and 5 for not-high DEPC. The results reveal that the changes of DEPC are mainly caused by the synergy of multi-factors. In order to enhance DEPC, digital entrepreneurs should seek support from family members actively; build self-regulated entrepreneurial learning (SREL) capabilities or entrepreneurial experience learning capabilities; and adjust promoting regulatory focus to a lower level or accumulate the experience of digital entrepreneurship in a good entrepreneurial environment. Overall, this work highlights the approaches to high DEPC. Theoretically, it contributes to the literature on positive organizational behavior by confirming the configurational roles of DEPC; practically, it provides beneficial implications for the development of DEPC, which helps digital entrepreneurs face the crisis better in VUCA environment.