Entrepreneurial Marketing and Start-up Performance : The Mediating Role of Hope and Resilience

This research examines the role of positive emotions in translating entrepreneurial marketing into start-up performance. While previous studies have explored the relationships between entrepreneurial marketing and performance (Bachmann et al., 2021), entrepreneurial marketing and aggregate emotional responses (Cavanaugh et al., 2011; Woodman et al., 2009), and the impact of these emotional responses on performance outcomes (Alqatani et al., 2023), there have not yet been investigations on specific positive emotions, namely that of hope and resilience, and their role in translating entrepreneurial marketing into performance. Hence, this research expands our understanding of how the hope and resilience of the start-up founder may influence start-up performance. This thesis employs a systematic literature review (SLR), two experiments, a survey, and a post-hoc fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to achieve the research aim of investigating the types of founders and the configurations of conditions leading to start-up performance. The SLR is conducted to identify the gaps in the relevant literature and potential future directions for investigations to enhance the literature on the mediating role of emotions in the relationships between entrepreneurial marketing and start-up performance. The experiment demonstrates the causal effect of hope and resilience on start-up performance by capitalising on and bridging one of the research questions. This study also employs a survey to develop and test the nomological network of the constructs of entrepreneurial marketing, hope, resilience, and performance in the context of Australian start-ups. In addition, given that recovery and adaptation to contextual conditions are crucial for any start-up, this thesis explores the moderating effect of technological turbulence on the association between entrepreneurial marketing and resilience and how strategic agility moderates the impact of entrepreneurial marketing on hope in recovery from adverse situations. The study ...