۱- Introduction

۲- Self-determination theory (SDT), basic psychological needs, and well-being

۳- Hypothesis development

۴- Data and methods

۵- Empirical results

۶- Discussion

References

Abstract

Drawing upon the self-determination theory, we develop a two-stage multi-path mediation model in which psychological autonomy mediates the relationship between active engagement in entrepreneurship and well-being partially through its effect on psychological competence and relatedness. We test this model on a representative sample of 1837 working individuals (251 early-stage entrepreneurs) from Sweden. We find active engagement in entrepreneurial work tasks to be strongly associated with well-being relative to non-entrepreneurial work. Thus, we highlight the importance of individual self-organization—with autonomy at its core—which makes entrepreneurial work more beneficial in terms of basic psychological needs compared to other work alternatives.

Executive summary

In recent years, the focus on well-being has moved to the forefront of scholarly research on entrepreneurship. In this important line of research, an exploration of the role that well-being plays in entrepreneurial task engagement has already begun (Foo et al., 2009; Foo, 2011; Foo et al., 2015; Hahn et al., 2012). Because entrepreneurship is an emotionally demanding and uncertain process (McMullen and Shepherd, 2006), previous studies have found that it can lead to high levels of stress (Monsen and Wayne Boss, 2009), fear (Mitchell et al., 2008), and grief (Jenkins et al., 2014). At the same time, an emerging evidence suggests that people who are actively starting and running new business ventures report significantly higher levels of job and life satisfaction despite, more often than not, earning lower incomes and working longer hours (GEM, 2013; Frey et al., 2004; Benz and Frey, 2008a, 2008b). Despite these promising findings, however, we still lack an integrative theoretical framework and systematic empirical analysis of the direct and indirect psychological mechanisms through which entrepreneurship affects well-being (Shir, 2015; Williams and Shepherd, 2016). In this study, we fill this gap in the literature by building on the self-determination theory (SDT), which considers the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness as critical to optimal human functioning and well-being (Deci and Ryan, 2000).