PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME AND ECONOMIC MIND OF ENTREPRENEURS. EVIDENCE FROM SMALL BUSINESS OF RUSSIAN INDUSTRIAL REGION

"Entrepreneurs, as the most active social group sensitive to public mood, perhaps feel the changes in the time of life in a digital society (time pressure illusion) most of all. On the other hand, the very internal temporal organization of a person involved in entrepreneurial activity can determine the characteristics of his or her mind and behavior in the economic sphere. The aim of the study is to reveal the impact of the psychological time of the representatives of small businesses on their economic minds. The study involves 109 representatives of small businesses in various fields (wholesale and retail trade, education, tourism, consulting, production, etc.), registered in the Chelyabinsk region and operating in the Russian Federation (mean age 34.9, 42% male). The respondents completed electronic forms of Inventory of Time Value as an Economic Resource (Usunier), Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, Attitudes towards Time (Nuttin), and Inventory of Polychronic Values (Bluedorn). To diagnose the features of the economic mind of entrepreneurs, the Economic Attitudes Questionnaire (Deyneka & Zabelina, 2018) was used. Regression analysis showed that certain components of psychological time (positive attitude to the past, present and future, the value of time as an economic resource) determine the formation of constructive economic attitudes of small business owners, namely the value of independent economic achievements, willingness to invest, unwillingness to sacrifice vocation and health for money, financial optimism. Thus, the lack of fixation on past failures, a positive attitude towards the present and the future, the ability to transfer time into money create a psychological foundation for the formation of entrepreneurs' attitudes in economic life. The results can be used in the consulting of the future entrepreneurs."