Rhetorical use of emotions in resource mobilization: a pedagogy for entrepreneurs' interpersonal emotions

.

Despite the importance of displayed emotions in mobilizing resources for nascent ventures, educational approaches are missing for nurturing the interpersonal dimension of entrepreneurs’ emotional intelligence. This study outlines a theory-grounded and evidence-based framework to explicate how and why entrepreneurs’ emotional displays persuade investors and proposes a pedagogy for developing interpersonal emotional skills among entrepreneurs.
Design/methodology/approach. A systematic literature review of 49 articles (69 studies) examining the emotional displays that are more persuasive for investors is integrated into a comprehensive model informed by social-functionalist theories of emotions.Findings. The model reveals that emotions affect entrepreneurial funding in a complex way. First, some emotions, regardless of their valence, may elicit similar inferences in investors, and investors´ inferences depend on emotions’ perceived authenticity, coherence, and appropriateness. Second, emotions can be communicated through myriad displays, among which nonverbal emotional displays have a higher persuasiveness than verbal displays. Third, the same emotions may be interpreted differently depending on the type of investor, the gender of the entrepreneur, and the intensity of the display.
Originality. This paper offers the first comprehensive synthesis of the persuasiveness of emotional displays in equity-funding interactions, responding to calls for more research into the interpersonal emotional dynamics in the entrepreneurship process. It also contributes to the scholarship on entrepreneurship education by proposing a pedagogy model that entrepreneurs and instructors can use to develop their ability to use emotions as persuasive resources.