A Self-Regulatory Model of Entrepreneurs’ Variability in Decision-Making and Taking Charge Behavior

I introduce variability in decision-making (VDM) as a construct that covers the extent to which entrepreneurs switch between analytic and intuitive decision-making over time. Drawing from self-regulation theories, I developed a model that explains how VDM is negatively related to taking charge behavior (TCB) and is driven by entrepreneurs’ regulatory focus strategies. This model is tested using a dataset covering 438 daily observations from 53 entrepreneurs and matched data from non-entrepreneurs. The results show that VDM leads to decreased TCB via decreased self-efficacy and optimism. Prevention but not promotion focus predicted VDM. These associations emerged for entrepreneurs but not for non-entrepreneurs.