Thinking is in the middle. Testing the relationship between entrepreneurs’ affect, cognition and decision-making effectiveness

Research is increasingly focusing on the topic of entrepreneurial affect, that is, how the feelings and moods that individuals experience in the present moment influence entrepreneur’s cognition and, consequently, his/her decision-making. Nevertheless, there is scarce resource investigating which cognitive mechanisms mediate the relationship between affect and entrepreneurial decision-making effectiveness. Based on a survey data of 98 entrepreneurs of manufacturing firms in Tuscany, an Italian Region, this study wants to test a model which links affect, both positive and negative, and entrepreneurial decision-making effectiveness, considering cognitive processes (i.e. intuition and rationality) as mediators of this relationship. The results showed that the relationship between entrepreneurs’ positive affect and decision- making effectiveness is fully mediated by entrepreneurial rationality.