A total of over 7,000 entrepreneurs from 26 countries participated in PosEnt research. We spoke to over 500 entrepreneurs daily over the course of 2-3 weeks to document entrepreneurs’ ‘life-as-lived’ and understand the unique nature of their work and well-being. In addition to creating our own original global dataset on entrepreneurs’ well-being, we also analysed secondary data from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) to understand how well-being differs across context and how culture can support entrepreneurs’ well-being.
First, drawing on GEM, we found that the well-being of necessity entrepreneurs (those, who are ‘pushed’ into running a business) is enhanced particularly by experiencing work as meaningful. Autonomy is a source of well-being for those entrepreneurs who start their business to exploit an opportunity (opportunity entrepreneurs). We also established that the relational aspects of national culture (socially supportive culture and kindness) enhance especially necessity entrepreneurs’ well-being. Conversely, the ‘individualistic’ aspects of culture (curiosity) enhance the well-being of opportunity entrepreneurs.
Second, drawing on our own global dataset we document the effect of the pandemic and government response on entrepreneurs’ well-being and businesses. We distill more general insights on how crises impact entrepreneurs’ well-being, and shed light on what entrepreneurs can do in a crisis to protect their well-being. More severe government responses to the pandemic (lockdowns) had a more pronounced negative impact on entrepreneurs’ business and wellbeing. Our findings indicate that entrepreneurs’ agility – a type of pivoting during crisis - can be a double-edged sword for well-being, while confirming positive effects on growth aspirations. The positive effects on well-being come mostly from recognizing new opportunities. Changes to planning can negatively affect well-being; likely because they are insufficient to reassert a sense of control in a crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic.
Third, our longitudinal research highlights the significance of eudaimonic well-being and its protective role for weathering crises. Entrepreneurs’ pre-pandemic eudaimonic well-being positively predicted their subjective vitality and creativity during the pandemic. Moreover, it mitigated the negative impact of crisis-related uncertainty on creativity. Thus, eudaimonic well-being helps to understand how entrepreneurs can navigate crises with vitality and creativity despite facing significant uncertainty.
We disseminated the academic results of the project at 15 major conferences and through 4 academic papers. We translated the academic results into practical insight for entrepreneurs and policy makers and delivered 20 workshops and presentations to entrepreneurs, published 4 special reports and presented results at 7 events for policy makers. The findings informed policy makers (i.e. Economic Affairs Committee of UK House of Lords, Presidential Council for Entrepreneurship in Poland) and were widely covered in the media (e.g. BBC, The Guardian, Financial Times, Al Jazeera, WIRED).
