Full circle support: unpacking the relationship between women entrepreneurs’ family-to-work support and work interference with family

• Published in: International entrepreneurship and management journal Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 343 - 367
• Main Authors: De Clercq, Dirk, Kaciak, Eugene, Thongpapanl, Narongsak (Tek)
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.03.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Business and Management; Emerging Markets/Globalization; Employees; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Families & family life; Hypotheses; Management; Women; Work-related emotional exhaustion; Entrepreneurial strategy; Women entrepreneurs; Conservation of resources theory; Work interference with family; Family-to-business support
• ISSN: 1554-7191; 1555-1938
• DOI: 10.1007/s11365-022-00824-3

With an anchoring in conservation of resources theory, this study examines the mediating role of women entrepreneurs’ work-related emotional exhaustion in the relationship between their family-to-business support and work interference with family, as well as the moderating role of the entrepreneurial character of their company’s strategy in this process. Survey data collected from women entrepreneurs in Argentina indicate that a notable reason that business support received from the family diminishes work interference with that same family is that it abates the sense of being overburdened by work. This benefit of reduced exhaustion is especially prominent to the extent that women entrepreneurs pursue an energy-consuming, entrepreneurial strategy for their business. For entrepreneurship scholars and practitioners, this research accordingly reveals a critical channel through which supportive family relationships can decrease the probability that women entrepreneurs bring work challenges home (i.e., diminished depletion of work energy), and it shows how this explanatory factor varies with the strategic profile they adopt for their business.