It’s “time” to “talk” about entrepreneurial alertness

ABSTRACT Drawing upon linguistic relativity theory, we investigate the underlying mechanisms of entrepreneurial alertness with respect to one of the most salient, yet underexplored, aspects of linguistic structures: the future-time-reference (FTR). Employing a mixed method design with two major studies, we found that FTR positively influences entrepreneurial alertness through the mediating mechanism of future temporal focus and that this positive effect is higher when entrepreneurs’ linguistic diversity is low. We contributed to our understanding of a classic question in entrepreneurship research: why some people are more likely to discover opportunities than others. We also enhanced the burgeoning research on time and entrepreneurship by exploring two prominent temporal dynamics (FTR and future temporal focus) and their role in shaping alertness.