On Monday January 27th, Ute Stephan will present at the UCL CNET seminar. Ute is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at King’s Business School, King’s College London. Her research is about entrepreneurs’ mental well-being, the psychology of entrepreneurship, sustainability, and societal impact. She ranks among the top 2% of scientists worldwide based on citations to her work (Stanford study) and received various international recognitions for her scientific contributions. The abstract of her talk is at the end of the email.

Title: Under pressure: Why, how and for which entrepreneurs stress enhances unethical pro-organizational behaviour

Authors: Ute Stephan, Hai-anh Tran, & Bach Nguyen

Abstract: Research documents the factors affecting entrepreneurs' mental wellbeing, and emerging evidence suggests its importance for their persistence, productivity, and firm performance. However, we lack theoretical and empirical understanding of how low mental wellbeing—particularly stress, which is ubiquitous among entrepreneurs—affects their decisions and actions. When feeling overwhelmed, entrepreneurs may make suboptimal decisions and engage in unethical actions, including 'unethical pro-organizational behavior' (UPB). UPB encompasses actions that violate social norms, values, and laws to benefit one's organization or venture. Through two experiments and a survey study, we investigate how and why stress facilitates entrepreneurs' engagement in UPB, while identifying which entrepreneurs are more/less susceptible to stress-induced UPB. Our findings provide novel insights into the consequences of entrepreneurial stress and establish stress and rumination as significant antecedents of UPB.