Investigating the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Entrepreneurial Behaviour

Abstract

The aim of the present research study is to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial behaviour. More precisely, the study focused on evaluating the effect of selected dimensions of emotional intelligence, based on Goleman's (1998) model, as predictors of entrepreneurial behaviour namely; self-awareness, self-regulations, internal motivation, empathy and social-skills among small-sized firms' managers working in Kurdistan Region-Iraq. Moreover, it also examined the degree of managers' emotionally intelligent and entrepreneurial behaviour. Sixty six (66) managers from Kurdistan region-Iraq participated in the study. The participants were given a pre-structured questionnaire of two parts including;"entrepreneurial behaviour" questionnaire by (Pearce et al., 1997) "emotional intelligence" questionnaire by (Goleman, D. 1998) five dimensions model. Three measuring tools were used to analyse data including; descriptive statistics; mean and standard deviation, Spearman moment correlation and multiple linier regressions. The finding showed a moderate level of emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial behaviour among managers. In addition, emotional intelligence and all its dimensions showed statistically significant correlation with entrepreneurial behaviour. Concerning the impact of emotional intelligence, out of five dimension four were found to have a significant impact on managers' entrepreneurial behaviour namely; self-awareness, internal motivation, empathy and social-skills. However, dimensions of emotional intelligence, collectively explained a significant variance in entrepreneurial behaviour which means that managers' entrepreneurial behaviour is significantly affected by their level of emotional intelligence.