The Effect of Family Support on Owners’ Wellbeing and Performance of Women-owned Enterprises in Pakistan: The Mediating Role of Family-to-Work Enrichment, Complemented by firms and Owners Demographics.

Abstract

Many women entrepreneurs venturing into the business world, are, however, still responsible for a larger portion of family responsibilities. Consequently, a deeper understanding of the bidirectional effect of family and work on women’s entrepreneurship and its uniqueness is vital. This study aims to explain how family support affects these women's well-being and their firms’ performance. In this regard, Neneh (2017) proposed a mediating role of family-to-work enrichment (FWE) on the relationship between family support and performance. We proposed a theoretical framework, modifying Neneh’s model to include wellbeing as in outcome, as well as demographics in a moderating role in family support and performance nexus. We argue that Family support is measured by 1. Emotional (ES), .2 Instrumental (IS), and 3. Financial Support (FS), leads to better family-to-work enrichment (FWE). FWE was measure by 1. Instrumental FWE, and 2. Affective FWE. Higher FWE would in turn increase the firms’ performance. It would also increase the well-being of these women entrepreneurs. We included four dimensions of Well-being namely 1. psychological (PWB), 2. social (SWB), 3. Workplace (WWB), and 4. subjective well-being (SBB). We also proposed a complementary role of entrepreneurs numbers of children, their education, and age, their firms’ size, and age, in family support and performance relationship, in a way that the effect of Instrumental, and Affective FEW on firms performed in less effective where women owners are more educated, having more age, and having larger firms size and age. Empirical validity was established by conducting a survey using a close-ended questionnaire. Data was collected from 530 women entrepreneurs as well as some of their family members and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modeling. The results showed that ES and IS seem to have a significant positive effect on Affective and Instrumental FWE. FS also seems to affect affective FEW. Affective FWE in turn seems to positively affect firm performance. ES and IS also seem to have a significant positive effect on firms' performance (FP), Hence Affective FEW seems to partially mediate the effect of ES, FS, and IS on FP. Results also suggested a significant positive number of children on FP, whereas firms’ size seems to affect FP negatively. However, a higher firm size seems to make the ES-FP relationship weaker. On the other hand higher education level would strengthen the ES-FP nexus. With regards to wellbeing, ES and IS seems to positively affect all four dimensions of wellbeing i.e. PWB, SBB, SWB, and WWB. Affective FWE also seems to affect PWB, SWB, whereas, Instrumental FWE seems to positively affect PWB and WWB. Hence, Instrumental FWE seems to positively mediate the effect of ES and IS on PWB, and WWB, whereas Affective FWE mediates the effect of ES, FS, and IS on SWB. The findings emphases the need for the current system to take into account the distinctive needs and challenges of women entrepreneurs and provide the necessary support and environment to foster their growth and prosperity.