The Effectiveness of Coping Strategies Used by Entrepreneurs and Their Impact on Personal Well-Being and Venture Performance

Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci, časopis za ekonomsku teoriju i praksu - Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, Journal of Economics and Business, Vol. 28, No. 2, 2010, pp. 193-220

28 Pages Posted: 21 May 2013

See all articles by Mateja Drnovsek

Mateja Drnovsek

University of Ljubljana

Daniel Örtqvist

Lulea University of Technology (LTU)

Joakim Wincent

Lulea University of Technology (LTU); Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration

Date Written: December 20, 2010

Abstract

This paper analyzes effectiveness of coping strategies that entrepreneurs use to daily manage work related stress. Coping is the process of expending efforts to solve personal and interpersonal problems and reducing stress induced by unpleasant and stressful situations. Two broad strategies of coping are identified; problem-based coping refers to a cognitively-based response behavior that includes efforts to alleviate stressful circumstances while emotion-based coping involves behavioral responses to regulate the affective consequences of stressful events. The purpose of this research is to analyze relationships among the coping strategies used by entrepreneurs and a set of antecedents influencing the selection of coping strategies. The methodology used is based on structural equation modeling and empirical data of 469 entrepreneurs from two European countries. Our results show that problem based coping facilitates well-being and venture performance. In addition, our findings also support interaction effects of founder centrality and contextual conditions of venturing on the extent entrepreneurs engage in coping. We believe that our insights can help in training entrepreneurs in the development of effective coping strategies that are context dependent. In specific, our results suggest entrepreneurs to engage in problem-focused strategies when they want to effectively address the economic aspects of their lives whereas when they engage in emotion based strategies they seem to increase the self-knowledge they need to start subsequent ventures and facilitate learning from failure. Future studies on coping strategies could study the interplay of coping strategies used to resolve challenging social situations that various stakeholders of practicing entrepreneurs impose.

Keywords: Coping, problem-based coping, emotion-based coping, roles, entrepreneur, venture performance, well-being

JEL Classification: M1

Suggested Citation

Drnovsek, Mateja and Örtqvist, Daniel and Wincent, Joakim, The Effectiveness of Coping Strategies Used by Entrepreneurs and Their Impact on Personal Well-Being and Venture Performance (December 20, 2010). Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci, časopis za ekonomsku teoriju i praksu - Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, Journal of Economics and Business, Vol. 28, No. 2, 2010, pp. 193-220, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2267327

Mateja Drnovsek (Contact Author)

University of Ljubljana ( email )

Kardeljeva ploscad 17
Ljubljana, 1000
Slovenia

Daniel Örtqvist

Lulea University of Technology (LTU) ( email )

971 87 Lulea
Porson
Sweden

Joakim Wincent

Lulea University of Technology (LTU) ( email )

971 87 Lulea
Porson
Sweden

Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration ( email )

P.O. Box 479
FI-00101 Helsinki, 00101
Finland

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