The Role of Emotional Intelligence on Entrepreneurs’ Perception of Success

Abstract

This study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by introducing emotional intelligence as an additional factor that explains how entrepreneurs perceive their own success. Using survey data from 112 Dutch entrepreneurs, we find that emotionally intelligent entrepreneurs are more likely to judge their entrepreneurial success using the following criteria: employee satisfaction, social responsibility, personal satisfaction, customer satisfaction and business performance. Furthermore, not all EI dimensions are equally relevant to explain the phenomenon. We find that "regulation of emotion in others" seems to be the most important dimension, whereas "emotion in others" seems to be the less relevant one.

Keywords: Emotional intelligence, success criteria