Abstract
Previous studies suggest that individual career satisfiers such as earning wealth and developing relationships with employees are important drivers of intentions to start an entrepreneurial career. However, less is known about their effects on broader, downstream career decisions such as intentions to remain in entrepreneurial careers. Based on data from 228 business owners, we find that employee relationship career satisfiers drive intentions to remain in entrepreneurship while status-based career satisfiers do not. Further, our study reveals that the cognitive relationships between career satisfiers and career continuance intentions are socially situated such that emotional support from family changes these relationships, especially when examined between owners of family and nonfamily businesses.
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Appendix
Appendix
Full-item scales for dependent and independent variables
Intentions to remain an entrepreneur (α = .79):
I am going to remain self-employed, no matter what the problems are.
I often think about leaving self-employment and going back to work for an organization again (Reverse coded).
I fully intend to continue with my current self-employment situation.
If I have my own way, I will be self-employed 3 years from now.
Importance of status-based career satisfiers (α = .75)
Earning a lot of money
Having high prestige and social status
Being in a leadership role
Being highly regarded in my field
Growing a world-class business
Importance of employee relationship career satisfiers (α = .80)
Working with friendly and congenial people
Working as part of a team
Having supportive employees
Providing comfortable working conditions
Developing mutually beneficial relationships with employees
Perceptions of emotional support from family (α = .83)
When I talk with them about my business, family members don’t really listen (reverse coded).
When I have a problem at work, members of my family express concern.
Members of my family are interested in my business.
When I’m frustrated by my business, someone in my family tries to understand.
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Marshall, D., Dibrell, C. & Eddleston, K.A. What keeps them going? Socio-cognitive entrepreneurial career continuance. Small Bus Econ 53, 227–242 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-0055-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-0055-z