Small business owners and health Torrès, Olivier; Thurik, Roy
Small business economics,
08/2019, Letnik:
53, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The present article identifies a societal and scholarly neglect for the field of small business ownership and health. We address health capital and its spillover effects and briefly outline a ...research program discriminating between pathogenic (negative for health) and salutogenic (positive for health) effects for a small business owner’s working life.
Determinants of small-firm performance represent a central topic in the entrepreneurship literature. Addressing associations among personal traits, entrepreneurial orientation (EO), and small-firm ...performance, we develop a model to examine how an entrepreneur's creativity, self-efficacy, and EO affect small-firm performance. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 256 French small-firm owners. The findings show that self-efficacy and EO are positively and directly associated with firm performance, whereas creativity and firm performance are fully mediated by EO. These findings offer important theoretical and practical implications.
The cost of injustice Soenen, Guillaume; Eib, Constanze; Torrès, Olivier
Small business economics,
08/2019, Letnik:
53, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In this paper, we build on the allostatic load model, developed in stress research, to explore the impact of entrepreneurs’ overall justice perceptions on emotional exhaustion and firm performance. ...Results revealed that the relationship between overall justice and emotional exhaustion was mediated by rumination about work. Further, building on recent work by Baron et al. (Journal of Management, 42(3), 742–768, 2016), which highlighted that company founders have more resources to deal with stress, we hypothesized that the relationship between rumination about work and emotional exhaustion was moderated by whether the entrepreneur was the founder of the venture or not. Results revealed that indeed founders appeared to be immune to the consequences of rumination about work elicited by injustice at work, while non-founders suffered from it. Moreover, emotional exhaustion was related to the monthly firm performance. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
This study investigates the link between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and entrepreneurial orientation (EO). EO is known to be a crucial factor for small firm survival and ...growth, conceptualised as a business characteristic but influenced by the personality of the small business owner and measured at her individual level. There is ample anecdotal evidence claiming that ADHD symptoms have helped entrepreneurs in their careers. Using a data set of French small firm owners, we are the first to go beyond the anecdotal level in linking ADHD symptoms and EO. Our study contributes to our understanding of entrepreneurship, particularly the determinants of EO, and to “destigmatising” ADHD, which is considered solely a clinical disorder that should be treated.
Technostress is an important by-product of information and communication technologies (ICT). The technostress literature suggests focusing on specific dimensions of technostress, such as ...techno-overload, which describes when ICT usage demands to work faster and longer. However, only a few studies have dealt with the technostress of small business owners, let alone techno-overload. This is surprising since work overload in general has been identified as an important dimension of job stress for small business owners, and technostress has been identified as an important impediment for workers in general. The aim of the current study is to investigate the effect of techno-overload on well-being outcomes (as a composite measure consisting of physical well-being, mental well-being, sleep quality, burnout, and loneliness) using three data sets of French small business owners. Our results indicate a strong negative correlation between techno-overload and our composite measure of well-being for all three data sets. We interpret our findings for several different disciplines: information systems, small business owners and entrepreneurship, health and well-being, psychology and organization studies. Our data also allow for the identification of contextual effects - the COVID-19 pandemic - since one survey was conducted before, one at the start of, and one during the pandemic.
There is a small body of literature linking attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its symptoms to entrepreneurial manifestations. Some studies take a subclinical perspective by studying ...the presence of symptoms, while other studies take a clinical perspective by studying the formal diagnosis of ADHD. The entrepreneurial manifestations examined range from entrepreneurial intention to the choice to become self‐employed and from entrepreneurial orientation (EO) to entrepreneurial success. Despite its prominence in the entrepreneurship literature, to date only one study tested for a link with EO. The present study aims to replicate the relationship between ADHD symptoms and EO using a large data set of French small business owners. We do so by discriminating between the two dimensions of ADHD, namely attention‐deficit and hyperactivity, as well as the three dimensions of EO, namely innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk‐taking. We do not find a link between ADHD and EO, although we do find a positive link between ADHD and the risk‐taking subdimension of EO. Hyperactivity symptoms are positively related to EO, which is mainly driven by the subdimensions proactiveness and risk‐taking. We do not find a link between attention‐deficit symptoms and EO, though there is a negative link between attention‐deficit and proactiveness.
Introduction: The smoking rate of Japanese women had temporarily risen to 20%, but has decreased significantly in recent years, and the smoking rate in 2017 was 7.2%. On the other hand, the smoking ...rate of French women is high at 30.1%. Objectives: In this study, we compare the smoking behavior of Japanese and French female small and medium enterprise (SMEs) owners with their business stress as well as mental and physical conditions, and consider the social, psychological and cultural background of smoking. Methods: For Japanese subjects, in 2018, we conducted a telephone interview with 317 SMEs owners who are members of the Welfare Foundation who and had agreed to the survey. A total of 169 French subjects participated in an internet survey at the same time. The number and average age (± standard deviation) of the subjects were 410 males, 58.60 (± 13.2), 76 females, 53.3 (± 13.5). The survey items used were lifestyle factors, health status, and job factors, and we compared the Japanese and French results by gender. Results: The smoking rate of female SMEs owners was 18.5% in Japan and higher than that in France (10.2%). The proportion of respondents who answered “well” and “feel good” was 37.0% and 44.4% respectively in Japan, and 75.5% and 83.7% in France. Job satisfaction and stress were also significantly lower for female SME owners in Japan than for female SMEs owners in France. Conclusion(s): The smoking rate of female SMEs owners in Japan was 2.5 times higher than that of general female population in Japan, and was one-third lower in France than that of general female population. The result may be attributed to the complex relation between the age group of Japanese surveyed, social norms on smoking, and differences in women's values and attitudes toward smoking in Japan and France.
Overconfidence is one of the alleged drivers for market entry. However, establishing its effect is challenging and much of the existing entrepreneurship literature confusingly conflates ...overconfidence with optimism. In the present study, we use validated scales to analyze the relationship between overconfidence and two important aspects of entrepreneurship, while explicitly controlling for optimism. Specifically, we study the role of overconfidence in developing intentions about entering entrepreneurship as well as how overconfidence relates to entrepreneurial orientation. Our findings show that overconfidence is related to intended market entry but not to the market position (entrepreneurial orientation) of the business.
The COVID-19 crisis presents manifest threats for entrepreneurs since their business survival is often directly at stake given the alarming economic downturn. This existential threat, together with ...their crucial role in the economy, is the reason for the plethora of public financial support schemes being implemented throughout the entire world. However, support schemes for mental health are lacking. We aim to investigate,
first
, whether burnout levels have increased during the crisis and,
second
, whether burnout levels during the COVID-19 crisis depend on the threat of becoming ill, having to stay at home due to the lockdown, and/or having to file for bankruptcy due to the economic downturn. We do so using seven data sets of French entrepreneurs with a temporal comparison of averages and two data sets of French entrepreneurs with a cross-sectional analysis of individuals. Our findings show that indeed, the risks of burnout have increased during the pandemic and that the threat of bankruptcy is the dominant threat. As an increasing number of studies in the entrepreneurship literature indicate that entrepreneurs’ mental health influences their activities, as well as the growth and sustainability of their ventures, our study is important and timely in its contribution, as it takes a close look at the perception of burnout in general and more specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Plain English Summary
The risk of burnout in French entrepreneurs has increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which calls for not only financial support but also other forms of support. The COVID-19 pandemic presents many threats for entrepreneurs since their business survival is often directly at stake. These threats are not just financial but also related to health, such as the threat of burnout. The findings of our study show that for French entrepreneurs, the threat of burnout increased after the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. This finding raises the question whether this outcome is due to the threat to health, the effects of the lockdown, or the threat of bankruptcy. It appears that all three factors play important roles, although the financial threat is the dominant threat. These findings call for the extension of entrepreneurial support systems beyond the financial area by also involving an “entrepreneurship care” aspect, which includes telephone support, webinars, and mental help facilities.
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