Entrepreneurial Social Support, Performance, and Well-being: The Mediating Effects of Metacognition

Abstract

Metacognition, or “thinking about thinking,” has recently been posited to be an important aspect of the entrepreneurial mindset. Despite this surge of interest on the topic, there is relatively little quantitative evidence examining the effects of metacognition within the entrepreneur psychology literature. This study seeks to understand potential mediation effects of metacognition on the relationship between an entrepreneur’s social support and their performance and mental well-being. The study begins with a review of the literature, before describing the motivations and hypotheses for our research. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 238 active North American entrepreneurs using structural equation modelling. We end by discussing our findings, their limitations, as well as their implications for both research and practice.