An Examination of Moonlighting on Entrepreneurial Well-Being

Abstract

We advance hybrid entrepreneurship research by introducing the concept of moonlighting–the process of working a “secondary job” while retaining an existing and primary business venture¬. Additionally, we contribute to entrepreneurial stress literature by examining moonlighting as a coping mechanism. Using data from 293 entrepreneurs over a period of several months, we analyze the impact of moonlighting on entrepreneurial performance and stress; we find consistent evidence of our hypothesis that moonlighting is positively associated with entrepreneur’s financial performance and with their levels of stress. Overall, our findings contribute to a better understanding of entrepreneurial stress and provides further evidence of a direct tradeoff between financial performance and work related stress.