"I want it all" : exploring the relationship between entrepreneurs' satisfaction with work–life balance, well-being, flow and firm growth

Drnovšek, Mateja (author), Slavec Gomezel, Alenka (author), Aleksić, Darija (author)

Drawing from the conservation of resources theory, we explore how two personal resources (satisfaction with work–life balance and experience of flow at work) contribute to two important outcomes in entrepreneurship: entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being and firm growth. Although previous research has emphasized the importance of personal factors for firm growth and explored a variety of factors affecting entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being, little attention has been paid to the role of satisfaction with work-life balance as a critical personal resource for entrepreneurs. With this study, we find that entrepreneurs' satisfaction with work-life balance is positively associated with subjective well-being, which, in turn, mediates the relationship between satisfaction with work-life balance and firm growth. Our study also shows that experiencing flow at work accentuates the relationship between satisfaction with work-life balance and subjective well-being. Based on our findings, we offer implications for practicing entrepreneurs in terms of how to achieve higher levels of well-being and better firm growth. Specifically, we emphasize the benefits of achieving satisfaction with work-life balance, as this is important for an entrepreneur's subjective well-being and has an indirect impact on firm growth. Stakeholders in entrepreneurial ecosystems should embrace subjective well-being as an important indicator of firm outcomes alongside traditional economic measures.

• Language: English
• Keywords: entrepreneurship, leadership, management, satisfaction with work–life balance, well-being, flow at work, firm growth
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 799–826
• Numbering: Vol. 18, iss. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-148049
• UDC: 005.3
• ISSN on article: 1863-6683
• DOI: 10.1007/s11846-023-00623-2
• COBISS.SI-ID: 143881731
• Publication date in RUL: 26.07.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Review of managerial science
• Shortened title: Rev. manag. sci.
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• ISSN: 1863-6683
• COBISS.SI-ID: 514963737

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: podjetništvo, vodenje, management