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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Organ. Psychol.
Sec. Performance and Development
Volume 3 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/forgp.2025.1491792
Impact of emotional intelligence on the success of startups in business incubators
Provisionally accepted
Débora De-Esteban-Escobar *
Carmen De-Pablos-Heredero 
José Luis Montes-Botella 
Francisco José Blanco-Jiménez - Rey Juan Carlos University, Móstoles, Spain
This research investigates the impact of business incubators' training and support initiatives on the emotional intelligence in entrepreneurship and how this subsequently affects the success of incubated startups. The study proposes and tests four hypotheses using a structural equation model (SEM) and data collected from October 2023 to February 2024. The findings indicate the following. First, business incubator training programmes significantly enhance entrepreneurs' emotional intelligence. Second, psychological support services help entrepreneurs overcome challenges and maintain a positive mindset. Third, incubators provide a supportive environment that fosters entrepreneurs' confidence, contributing to business success. By elucidating the relationship between incubator activities, emotional intelligence development, and entrepreneurial success, this study can inform the design of more effective business incubator programmes and the development of policies prioritising entrepreneurs' emotional growth, strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Keywords: business incubators, Emotional Intelligence, Entrepreneurship, Startup, business success
Received: 07 Sep 2024; Accepted: 25 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 De-Esteban-Escobar, De-Pablos-Heredero, Montes-Botella and Blanco-Jiménez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Débora De-Esteban-Escobar, Rey Juan Carlos University, Móstoles, Spain
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