Dynamic relationships between personal resources and work engagement in entrepreneurs

Abstract

The paper presents a longitudinal study that tests the postulates of social cognitive theory in real‐life settings on a sample of entrepreneurs – people who established and managed their firms. This study explores the reciprocal relationships between entrepreneurs’ personal resources and work engagement over time. It extends the dynamic understanding of entrepreneurship, explaining the role of work‐related self‐efficacy and positive affect – enthusiasm in relation to entrepreneurial activity engagement. In a longitudinal field study with three measurement times, 206 entrepreneurs took part. The results of structural equation modelling revealed that the model with reciprocal relationships between variables is the best fitting model. In this model, enthusiasm predicts work‐related self‐efficacy in the next two measurement times and is positively related to work engagement in entrepreneurs. Self‐efficacy beliefs, in turn, predict work engagement and enthusiasm, while work engagement predicts enthusiasm. In consequence, the results reveal that there are reciprocal relationships between self‐efficacy, positive affect, and work engagement among entrepreneurs, uncovering the dynamic interrelations between personal resources and work engagement over time. The resource gain spirals have not been confirmed.Practitioner points Work‐related self‐efficacy and enthusiasm towards work lead to engagement in entrepreneurial activity, which in turn mobilize further positive beliefs and affect. The development of interventions that aim at increasing self‐efficacy and help to regulate affect may lead entrepreneurs to maintain engagement in their work.