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We conceptualize the mitigating role of trait core confidence on psychological distress in entrepreneurship manifested by occupational stress, anxiety, and depression. To facilitate field research, we first developed a short trait core confidence scale and validated it in six independent samples (N = 2,434). To test our hypothesis that trait core confidence negatively relates to base-line levels of psychological distress as well as reduces fluctuations of distress in entrepreneurship, we collected data from a 3-day entrepreneurial event called Startup Weekend across seven occasions in the United States. High trait core confidence was related to lower psychological distress both at the start of the event on Friday and at the end of it on Sunday. Core confidence remained stable from Friday to Sunday, as well as 1 month following the event, affirming its trait properties. Additionally, we measured team confidence during the event and found that high team confidence reduced psychological distress of team members. This research contributes to the research on the role of dispositions in occupational health psychology and to a better understanding of how distress of aspiring entrepreneurs is mitigated by trait core confidence.

The Big Five personality traits and self-efficacy independently relate to a multitude of outcomes across domains of functioning. Yet, only a small number of studies examined these variables together as part of the same conceptual model, and findings are mixed. We revisit their joint relationships, and test three conceptual models of influence on academic performance of college students over a semester. Because of the key role college graduates will play in society, many have a stake in better understanding their performance. The trait model specifies that the Big Five traits influence performance directly and indirectly through partial mediation of self-efficacy. In the independent model, the Big Five traits influence self-efficacy and performance independently, without mediation of self-efficacy. In the intrapersonal model, the effects of the Big Five traits on performance are fully mediated by self-efficacy. We collected data in five samples, three Universities, and two countries, N = 875, and conducted a meta-analytic path-analysis. Self-efficacy positively related to academic performance across the models, conscientiousness and emotional stability were predictive of self-efficacy and performance in some analyses, and the significance of the other three traits was fleeting.

Although support for the positive effect of group efficacy on group performance is copious, our understanding of how group efficacy forms is scant. Much remains unanswered about how the four efficacy antecedents, defined by social cognitive theory as enacted mastery, vicarious learning, social persuasion, and affect, concurrently influence group efficacy. Complementing the homology assumption of social cognitive theory, the authors propose and test a differential moderation model of group trust, in which group trust interacts synergistically or compensatorily with the four antecedents of group efficacy depending on the information content they provide. The results, based on 100 work groups in a manufacturing plant in China, showed that past group performance and group social persuasion were positively related to group efficacy, but that group vicarious learning and group positive affect were not. A significant interaction with group trust was found for group vicarious learning and for group positive affect. Finally, group efficacy was positively related to subsequent group performance, even after controlling for the four efficacy antecedents and group trust. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Practitioner points: Group efficacy is a significant predictor of group performance. Building trust in work groups is a credible and critical managerial action for group efficacy formation.