Regulatory focus, persistence and new venture performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to examine the joint effects of regulatory focus, entrepreneurial persistence and institutional support on new venture performance. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a random survey approach to sample 204 new ventures from Ghana. The moderated mediation method was used to analyse the survey data. Findings The findings from this paper show that entrepreneurs' promotion focus positively relates to persistence while prevent focus negatively influences persistence. In addition, persistence mediates the link between regulatory focus (promotion and prevention focus) and new venture performance. These relationships are positively moderated by perceived institutional support. Research limitations/implications Using data from only the manufacturing sector in Ghana limits the generalisability of this paper. In addition, persistence is not observed or measured directly in this paper but is only used as self-reporting variable that captures an individual's tendency to persist. Originality/value The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, this paper contributes to regulatory focus literature by enhancing our knowledge on how self-regulation could help explain entrepreneurial decision-making. Second, this paper broadens self-regulation literature by adding institutional context as a moderating variable. Third, this paper helps clarify the potential role of persistence in entrepreneurship.