مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد رابط خانواده و کسب و کار و عملکرد کارآفرینی زنان – امرالد ۲۰۱۷

Purpose – We examined the relationships between women entrepreneurs’ firm performance and two dimensions (enrichment and interference) of the business-family interface (BFI) in the moderating context of the level of economic development in two emerging countries − Morocco and Turkey. The enrichment perspective was operationalized as family instrumental (financial) and affective (moral) support while interference was operationalized as gender-related personal problems. Design/methodology/approach – The study drew upon the work-family interface (WFI) theory from the family embeddedness perspective in the context of institutional economics. In Morocco, a purposive sample of 116 women entrepreneurs completed a self-administered questionnaire using field collection, mail, and phone surveying methods. In Turkey, 147 women entrepreneurs completed the questionnaire online and through personal contacts in business organizations. Findings – The findings indicated a positive relationship of family financial support with business performance of female entrepreneurs in Morocco, a less economically advanced country. However, family moral support is related to better firm performance in Turkey, a more advanced economy. Gender related personal problems of women entrepreneurs appear to hamper their business performance in Turkey while in Morocco, the performance of women entrepreneurs seems to improve in the face of such impediments. Practical implications – Our results provide initial evidence that female entrepreneurs benefit from linkages of family-to-business enrichment in different ways, depending on the country’s level of economic development. In less economically developed countries, women entrepreneurs benefit more from instrumental rather than affective components of the enrichment dimension of the BFI. Conversely, in more economically advanced countries, female entrepreneurs benefit more from affective rather than instrumental elements of this dimension. Likewise, the components of the interference dimension of the BFI affect female entrepreneurs differently depending on the economic development of the countries. Women in the less developed country of Morocco are less impeded by their personal problems compared to their counterparts in Turkey, a more developed economy. Actually, Moroccan women entrepreneurs, improved their business performance when facing obstacles, most likely thanks to their increased inner strength and resilience acquired when battling adversarial institutional conditions. Originality/value – The present study makes three unique contributions to the entrepreneurship literature. First, the study links the two BFI dimensions (enrichment and interference) to firm performance with an exclusive focus on female business owners. Second, within the construct of enrichment, the study employs both family instrumental and emotional support. Third, the study shows that the country’s level of economic development moderates the relationships between the BFI dimensions and firm performance.

Introduction

The existing studies have focused on the factors that influence nascent women entrepreneurs to start their businesses (Sesen & Pruett, 2014) while ignoring the performance of those businesses (McClelland et al., 2005). This study attempted to fill this gap by investigating women-owned business performance in relation to family financial and moral support (Noguera et al., 2015) and gender-related personal problems (Derera et al., 2014; Tlaiss, 2014). We considered these concepts as part of the business-family interface (Jennings & McDougald, 2007), which is rooted in the work-family interface (WFI) theory (Greenhaus & Allen, 2011). The WFI theory seeks to explain job attitudes and behaviors. In entrepreneurship, researchers have started to recognize the relevance of business-family interface (BFI) because for entrepreneurs, the business and family domains are closely interrelated, as explained by the “family embeddedness” perspective (Aldrich & Cliff, 2003). Based on the WFI theory, two major constructs underlie the BFI, enrichment (i.e., positive synergy between family and business) and interference (i.e., conflict between the two domains). The former one is also known as the enhancement perspective (Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1999) or the enrichment argument (Rothbard, 2001) while the latter one is known as the conflict perspective (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985) or the depletion argument (Rothbard, 2001) (for additional details, see Jennings and McDougald, 2007). Thus, the two constructs capture potential positive and negative spillover between family and business (Hsu et al., 2016). Enrichment has multiple dimensions and contains both instrumental (organizational resources, financial resources, skills) and affective (positive emotions, moral support) components. Each of the two constructs spans either from family to business or from business to family (Hsu et al., 2016). Most studies suggest that the BFI experience reflects a combination of the two perspectives (Hsu et al., 2016; Jennings & McDougald, 2007; Ohlott et al., 2004). For example, Hsu et al. (2016) incorporated both enrichment and interference processes in their gender-neutral study of exit intentions of entrepreneurs.