Happy at home, successful in competition: the beneficial role of happiness and entrepreneurial orientation for women entrepreneurs
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research
ISSN: 1355-2554
Article publication date: 25 May 2022
Issue publication date: 12 August 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the mediating effect of entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between women entrepreneurs' experience of family-induced work happiness and the competitive performance of their companies, as well as the invigorating role of their perceptions of environmental hostility in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected among a nationwide sample of women entrepreneurs in Denmark.
Findings
The spillover of positive emotions from family to work can spur competitive performance if women entrepreneurs adopt an entrepreneurial strategic posture. This intermediate role of entrepreneurial orientation is particularly prominent among women entrepreneurs who experience their market environments as highly threatening to their success.
Practical implications
For practitioners, this study identifies a key mechanism, an entrepreneurial strategic direction, by which positive work energy stemming from family involvement can enhance women entrepreneurs' business success. The study also shows how this mechanism is triggered by resource-draining competitive markets that appear hostile instead of benign.
Originality/value
The adoption of an entrepreneurial posture is an unexplored but critical factor through which women entrepreneurs' sense of happiness at work, caused by their family involvement, can be leveraged into enhanced success at the organizational level. This study also explicates how this beneficial role is invigorated by beliefs about environmental hostility, as a critical external source of resource depletion.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by research grant no. 2017/27/B/HS4/02075 for Eugene Kaciak, National Science Centre, Poland.
Citation
De Clercq, D., Kaciak, E. and Thongpapanl, N. (2022), "Happy at home, successful in competition: the beneficial role of happiness and entrepreneurial orientation for women entrepreneurs", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 28 No. 6, pp. 1463-1488. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-02-2021-0154
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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