We use a self regulation perspective to argue that entrepreneurial effectiveness is driven by the coping strategies entrepreneurs use to meet expectations of stakeholders involved in the opportunity exploitation processes. As stakeholders advance their expectations and thus impact the roles of entrepreneurs in the process, role related conflicts, ambiguities and overloads, easily emerge. To resolve such conflicts entrepreneurs engage in coping strategies. We posit that four coping strategies are relevant for entrepreneurial effectiveness: structural role redefinition, personal role redefinition, reactive role behavior, and passive role behavior.