The cost of injustice: overall justice, emotional exhaustion, and performance among entrepreneurs: do founders fare better?

Guillaume Soenen (), Constanze Eib () and Olivier Torrès ()
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Guillaume Soenen: EMLYON Business School
Constanze Eib: Uppsala University
Olivier Torrès: Montpellier Business School

Small Business Economics, 2019, vol. 53, issue 2, No 4, 355-368

Abstract: Abstract 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.

Keywords: Entrepreneurs; Small businesses; Emotional exhaustion; Rumination; Founder; G32; I30; L25; L26; M13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11187-018-0052-2

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