Enterprise Ritual: A Theory of Entrepreneurial Emotion and Exchange

Abstract

Unlike most other areas of social science, emotion has been a neglected concept within entrepreneurship research. Where it has appeared, it has usually been a marginal or subsidiary concern, subordinated to the more rational aspects of information processing and decision‐making. This article draws upon ideas from social exchange, interaction ritual and discourse theory to propose a model that integrates the processes of social interaction, emotion and cognition. The model supports a set of conjectural propositions about the role of emotions in shaping entrepreneurial behaviour and suggests a number of new opportunities for research in this area.