What motivates individuals to emerge as leaders? A regulatory focus theory approach and the moderating role of undergraduate students’ extracurricular activity participation

Extant research has long investigated the individual antecedents of leadership emergence, but less research has explored the motivational factors. Drawing upon regulatory focus theory, the current research addresses the above issue by proposing a research model of the influence of regulatory focus on leadership emergence. Survey data collected from 426 undergraduate students in China indicated that both promotion focus and prevention focus were positively associated with leadership emergence. In addition, promotion focus contributed to leadership emergence via affective-identity motivation to lead (MTL), and prevention focus led to leadership emergence via social-normative MTL. Furthermore, undergraduate students’ extracurricular activity participation strengthened both the link between affective-identity MTL and leadership emergence and the indirect link between promotion focus and leadership emergence via affective-identity MTL. Nevertheless, undergraduate students’ extracurricular activity participation did not moderate both the link between social-normative MTL and leadership emergence and the indirect link between prevention focus and leadership emergence via social-normative MTL. This research contributes to the literature on leadership emergence, regulatory focus theory, and MTL and offers practical benefits for enhancing undergraduate students’ leadership emergence.