Stressors and satisfactors in entrepreneurial activity: an event-based, mixed methods study predicting small business owners' health

Thomas Lechat and Olivier Torrès
Additional contact information
Thomas Lechat: MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School - UM - Université de Montpellier
Olivier Torrès: EQUIPPE - Economie Quantitative, Intégration, Politiques Publiques et Econométrie - Université de Lille, Sciences et Technologies - Université de Lille, Sciences Humaines et Sociales - PRES Université Lille Nord de France - Université de Lille, Droit et Santé, MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School - UM - Université de Montpellier

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Entrepreneurial activity leads to certain events that can impact both the equilibrium of a small business and that of its owner-manager. Although the health of the owner-manager is a key asset for a small organisation, the characteristics of the events he experiences and his psychological reaction to these episodes remain underexplored. This paper aims to address these research gaps, which are common to both occupational health and entrepreneurship, two fields that are rarely combined. We conducted a mixed methods study using a panel of 357 small business owners-managers. First, a qualitative longitudinal survey was administered to semantically categorise the most salient events experienced by the owners. Next, a quantitative, cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to weight the coded events through two mediating constructs: stress and satisfaction. Finally, we assessed the events' effects on the owners' health variances through linear regressions. Conceptually, our results extend the affective events theory to small business owners. Methodologically, we offer two checklists of events that capture emotional stress and satisfaction in entrepreneurial activity. Practically, certain preventive actions by medical professionals can build upon these checklists' predictive qualities regarding health. These checklists, referred to as a 'stressometer' and a 'satisfactometer', are also benchmarking tools for any self-employed.

Keywords: Health; Mixed method; Event; Entrepreneurial activity; Stress; Small business owner; Satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Published in International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2017, 32 (4), pp.537-569. ⟨10.1504/IJESB.2017.087838⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02057599

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2017.087838

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().