Recent advances in entrepreneurial investment decisions research implied that early-stage investment decisions, given their extreme uncertainty and unpredictability, were results of investors’ intuition processes. In other words, investors manage the high risks of early-stage investment decisions by finding justifications of future value against risk in the invested entrepreneurial projects. Although some studies have discussed the decision-making process of mid- and late-stage venture capital, there is still a lack of discussion on the early-stage investment decision-making mechanism. In this paper, we draw on regulatory fit theory to theorize how the fit of regulatory focus between investor and entrepreneur could lead to the investor’s early-stage investment decisions in terms of investment amount and speed. Across three experimental studies, we found empirical support for our proposed model. Specifically, investors who have similar regulatory focus with the entrepreneurs are more likely to invest a larger amount of funds at a faster speed. We further found that investor’s sense of rightness mediates the relationship between regulatory fit and investment decision, and investor’s previous investment experience plays a moderating role.

中文翻译：

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感觉正确：监管契合理论和早期创业投资决策

创业投资决策研究的最新进展表明，早期投资决策，由于其极端的不确定性和不可预测性，是投资者直觉过程的结果。换句话说，投资者通过在投资的创业项目中寻找未来价值对抗风险的理由来管理早期投资决策的高风险。尽管有研究探讨了风险投资中后期的决策过程，但对早期投资决策机制的探讨仍然不足。在本文中，我们利用监管契合理论来理论化投资者和企业家之间监管焦点的契合如何导致投资者在投资金额和速度方面的早期投资决策。在三个实验研究中，我们为我们提出的模型找到了经验支持。具体而言，与企业家具有相似监管重点的投资者更有可能以更快的速度投资更多的资金。我们进一步发现，投资者的正确感在监管契合度与投资决策的关系中起中介作用，投资者过往的投资经验起到调节作用。