The (Not So) Dark Side of Entrepreneurship: A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Entrepreneurial Stress on Well-Being and Performance

First published: September 17, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1370

Commentary

Research on the effects of stress on entrepreneurs has been conducted for nearly 40 years and has been characterized by ambiguity, conflicting results, and a lack of theoretical frameworks to explain stress phenomena.

The current study extends the challenge-obstacle stressor framework to the entrepreneurship context and tests how challenge and obstacle stressors affect the well-being and performance of entrepreneurs, and the results of this meta-analysis show that challenge stressors improve entrepreneurial performance, while obstacle stressors The results of this meta-analysis showed that the challenge stressor improves entrepreneurial performance, while the disturbance stressor impairs entrepreneurial well-being. Comparing these results with non-entrepreneurs also suggests that entrepreneurs experience better outcomes from challenge and disturbance stressors than do non-entrepreneurs.

This is because entrepreneurs face a lot of stress when starting a venture, but previous studies have provided conflicting evidence regarding the impact of stressors on entrepreneurs and venture performance.

To address this contradiction, we theorize that entrepreneurial stressors can be categorized as either challenges or obstacles, and that each category of stressor affects entrepreneurs differently.