Fei Zhu

Bio: Fei Zhu is an academic researcher from The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. The author has contributed to research in topics: Entrepreneurship & Passion. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 6 publications receiving 394 citations. Previous affiliations of Fei Zhu include University of Nottingham.

Psychological capital: A review and synthesis

Abstract: Summary The concept of psychological capital (PsyCap) has attracted a great deal of interest from both academics and practitioners and has been linked to employee attitudes, behavior and performance at different levels of analysis. Yet, the nature of the concept, its measurement, the factors that influence its development, and when and how it influences individual-level, team-level and organizational-level outcomes are the subject of continued debate in the literature. This article offers a detailed and focused review of the existing literature on PsyCap, with the aim of developing an agenda for future research. In particular, we call for researchers to pay greater attention to possible multi-level applications of PsyCap research, examine the underlying mechanisms by which PsyCap influences individual-level, team-level and organizational-level outcomes, and identify possible factors that may moderate the relationship between PsyCap and its outcomes. In doing this, we provide a roadmap for scholars to progress the development of the field. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

To leave or not? The impact of family support and cognitive appraisals on venture exit intention

Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how family support affects challenge and hindrance appraisals, which in turn, influence entrepreneurs’ venture exit intention drawing on the challenge-hindrance job stressor model, family support, and the venture exit literature. Design/methodology/approach An experimental study (Study 1) was conducted to establish the relationships among family support, challenge and hindrance appraisals, and entrepreneurs’ venture exit intention. Two survey studies (Study 2 and Study 3) were conducted to extend the external validity of findings in Study 1 and to examine whether the theoretical framework holds in both the US and Chinese contexts. Findings All three studies demonstrate that family support decreases entrepreneurs’ venture exit intention by reducing hindrance appraisal. Study 3 also shows the mediating role of challenge appraisal in the family support – venture exit intention relationship. Originality/value This research contributes to the family embeddedness perspective not only by showing its relevance to the venture exit context but also by validating the relationship of family support with cognitive appraisals and venture exit intention in two cultural contexts. It also contributes to venture exit research by highlighting the unique role of cognitive appraisals in the formation of entrepreneurs’ venture exit intention.

An Investigation of Entrepreneurs' Venture Persistence Decision: The Contingency Effect of Psychological Ownership and Adversity

Abstract: We incorporate psychological ownership theory and adversity literature to examine the joint effect of psychological ownership and adversity on entrepreneurs persistence decision. The results of two experiments and one survey show that both low adversity and high psychological ownership for the venture increase entrepreneurs likelihood of persistence. We also identify the moderating effect of adversity. Psychological ownership is more relevant to the likelihood of persistence when adversity is high than when it is low. Our research contributes to psychological ownership theory and the entrepreneur- ial persistence literature and has practical implications for entrepreneurs.

When owner, family, and community roles intertwine: Examining entrepreneurs’ persistence decisions and the gender effect

Abstract: Entrepreneurs play multiple roles in their daily lives, and these roles can influence their decisions. Yet we know little about how entrepreneurs respond to simultaneous influences from different d...

What does not kill you makes you stronger: Entrepreneurs’ childhood adversity, resilience, and career success

Abstract: Childhood adversities, such as neglect, abuse, and poverty, lead to negative career outcomes. Anecdotal stories of entrepreneurs, however, present a contrasting picture, showing that many successful entrepreneurs had a difficult childhood. Building on the underdog framework of entrepreneurship and the stress inoculation model, we resolve the puzzle by hypothesizing the inverted U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurs’ childhood adversities and career success that is mediated by resilience. Using data from a representative sample of 573 U.S. entrepreneurs from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, we find support for the hypotheses. We further find resilience is more important for less-successful entrepreneurs. Our results are robust to various checks, including an additional study based on a sample of U.S. entrepreneurs from the Qualtrics online panel. Our study indicates the need to consider nonlinear and context-specific implications of childhood adversities and examine performance-related outcomes, thus enriching existing research on childhood adversities and entrepreneurship.

Applied Linear Regression Models

Abstract: (1991). Applied Linear Regression Models. Journal of Quality Technology: Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 76-77.

Psychological capital: An evidence-based positive approach.

Abstract: The now recognized core construct of psychological capital, or simply PsyCap, draws from positive psychology in general and positive organizational behavior (POB) in particular. The first-order positive psychological resources that make up PsyCap include hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism, or the HERO within. These four best meet the inclusion criteria of being theory- and research-based, positive, validly measurable, state-like, and having impact on attitudes, behaviors, performance and well-being. The article first provides the background and precise meaning of PsyCap and then comprehensively reviews its measures, theoretical mechanisms, antecedents and outcomes, levels of analysis, current status and needed research, and finally application. Particular emphasis is given to practical implications, which focuses on PsyCap development, positive leadership, and novel applications such as the use of video games and gamification techniques. The overriding theme throughout is that PsyCap has both scient...

Competing Devotions: Career and Family among Women Executives

Abstract: Competing Devotions: Career and Family Among Women Executives. Mary Blair-Loy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2003. 269 pp. ISBN 0-674-01089-2. $39.95 (cloth). Despite the rapid increase in women's educational attainment and enhanced labor force opportunities, women continue to lag behind men in career success. Goldin (2004) estimates that only 21%-27% of recent cohorts of college-educated women achieve "work and family" success (babies and well-paid careers) by midlife; Mary Blair-Loy, in Competing Devotions, helps us understand why. Based on in-depth interviews with 56 women in top executive positions in the finance industry and with 25 women who left these high-powered careers to focus on children and family, she illuminates the factors that impede gender equality in the labor market and the home even among those with the greatest resources and ability. According to Blair-Loy, two powerful schema help define the options of high-achieving women: the schema of "devotion to work" and "devotion to family." Schema operate at both the social and individual level: They are powerful not only because they offer shared understanding about how the world works and how it should work but also because they become internalized by the individual. The dilemma for high-achieving women is that they are caught between the widely shared belief that their profession is a calling, but so is motherhood. Under the devotion to work schema, market work is more than a job, it is a vocation. Work in these high-powered finance jobs requires single-minded devotion. In its extreme, only those who devote themselves totally to the job are worthy of the rise to the top. On the other hand, an equally powerful devotion to family schema sees motherhood in much the same light, as a life's work to which a woman must give herself over. One cannot be a "good mother" part time, and it is assumed that biology makes women, not men, the best caregivers of children. Because time is finite, it is difficult-indeed impossible for the most zealous adherents of both-to combine work and family. Fully two thirds of the 56 women in Blair-Loy's sample of top finance executives do not have children. Blair-Loy sees these women as conformists; they do not challenge the devotion to work schema by trying to combine highpowered careers with childrearing. Instead, they forego becoming mothers. On the other side, the women who have completely given up careers to rear children also do not challenge either schema but rather reinforce the notion that occupational achievement and good mothering are incompatible. Interestingly, views of what children need differ for those who devote themselves to family versus those who continue in high-powered careers while also rearing children. …

Psychological Capital and Well-being.

Abstract: Although important and of undeniable significance, decades of extensive research on mental illness and dysfunctional behavior in psychology, sociology and other foundational behavioral science disciplines have generally ignored or failed to contribute to the better understanding of the role that human strengths, flourishing and optimal functioning have for overall well-being. Similarly, the study of work stress, burnout, conflict, dysfunctional attitudes, counterproductive behaviors and other negative constructs that have preoccupied organizational behavior and human resources management scholars and practitioners have also not necessarily shed additional light on the characteristics of exceptional performers or the dynamic processes that facilitate excellence in the workplace. This realization motivated positive psychologists and positive organizational behavior (POB) scholars to launch new and exciting streams of research that focus on positivity in its own right, rather than simply extrapolating existing mainstream research. This essay focuses on one of these streams of research, namely psychological capital or simply PsyCap. We use this stream of research as an example and illustration of positive research in terms of rigor and relevance. We present conceptual frameworks in which positivity, particularly PsyCap, can promote well-being, both at and beyond the workplace.