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A Study Of The Relationship Among Entrepreneur's Work-family Conflict, Coping Strategies And Entrepreneurial Performance

Posted on:2010-12-05Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:H F WangFull Text:PDF
GTID:1119360278472022Subject:Business management
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
With the climax of global entrepreneurship coming, more and more people start to create a new venture. The numbers of entrepreneur are increasing rapidly. As a result, they are playing more and more impact on the economy and the society. They also become the focus of the media and the public. Meanwhile, the problem entrepreneurs met in the progress of venturing are noticed by people. One of them is Work-Family Conflict. Entrepreneurs often experience great WFC, because they need to work hard for the new venture. On the other hand, they have to be distracted by family responsibility. Under two these pressure, entrepreneurs figure out various ways to cope it. Someone succeeded to overcome it and achieved accomplishment of their business and happiness of their family. Others had to afford a big family burden, or had to get divorced, when they obtained business success. But to most of them, their family and business were both unsuccessful.This dissertation is aimed to examine the impact which WFC and coping strategies play on the New Venture Performance. This dissertation argued that WFC and coping strategies will play great impact on entrepreneurial activities. It will not only influence entrepreneur's physical and psychological health, but also the survival and success of the new venture. What's more, it will even influence the employment, the growth of economy, and the stability of society. This dissertation is consisted of three studies. Study one is the research of the relationship between WFC and NVP. Study two is the research of mechanism by which WFCS impacts on NVP. Study three is the research of entrepreneur's gender difference on NVP from the perspective of work-family interface.Study one, the third chapter, based on theoretical literatures, classified WFC as six kinds of conflicts, such as time-based WIF, strain-based WIF, behavior-based WIF, time-based FIW, strain-based FIW, and behavior-based FIW. Next, it examined the relationship between them and two types of NVP (survivor and success). The result showed that different conflict has different impact on the NVP. Two types of FIW negatively affect the NVP. Among them, strain-based FIW has the biggest impact, time-based FIW has the second biggest impact. Two types of WIF positively affect the NVP. Among them, time-based WIF has the biggest impact, strain-based FIW has the second biggest impact. Behavior-based FIW and behavior-based WIF have no significant impact on NVP. In addition, the study also found that FIW has bigger impact on survival performance than WIF. WIF has bigger impact on success performance than FIW.Study two is the center of this dissertation. There are three parts which consist of the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth chapter. Part one is trying to establish a multi-level taxonomy of Work-Family Coping Strategies. Based on prior research, and be consistent with the essence of WFC, it proposed that WFCS can be categorized by two level, one is the domain, the other is the style. According to the domain, WFCS can be classified as work coping strategies and family coping strategies. According to the style, WFCS can be classified as source-added coping strategies, demand-reduced coping strategies and self-managed coping strategies. This part used the methodology which named as "Convergent Interview" and "Thematic Content Analysis". The result shows the taxonomy has enough reliability and validity.Part two first developed the Work-Family Coping Strategies Questionnaire on the basis of literature and interview, and tested its reliability and validity by EFA and CFA later. The final WFCSQ consisted of three parts: Role source support scale, Role demand reduction scale, and Role behavior management scale. These scales all have good reliability and validity.Part three examined the impact which various WFCS play on the NVP. The result showed different strategies have different effects on The NVP. Family role coping strategies only have indirect effect, and these effects are positive. Among them, family role reduction strategies have the greatest effect, family role support strategies are the second, and family role management strategies ate the smallest. Work role coping strategies not only have indirect effect, but also have direct effect.Study three, the seventh chapter, is aimed to examine the entrepreneur's gender difference in their NVP under Chinese entrepreneurial environment. If the gender difference does not exist, the research will examine its reason. If the gender difference does exist, the research will turn to examine the mechanism. The result shows, just as other countries, Chinese entrepreneur's gender difference in their NVP also exists. Female entrepreneurs have lower performance than those male entrepreneurs. The research examined two mechanisms later. One is going to explain gender difference in entrepreneurial performance from different experience of work-family conflict between male and female entrepreneurs. The other is going to explain gender difference in entrepreneurial performance from different selection of work-family coping strategies between male and female entrepreneurs. Its result shows that entrepreneur's gender difference in their NVP is not only due to their work-family experience, but also due to their select preference of WFCS.In theoretical innovation, after three related research described above, the dissertation succeeded to realize the purpose of integrating the work-family interface literatures and entrepreneurship theory. By developed and tested a conceptual model illustrating the relationships between work-family conflict, coping strategies and entrepreneurial performance, the dissertation showed the capability and mechanism of work-family interface to explain entrepreneurial performance. It not only enriched work-family interface theory, but also broadened the perspective of entrepreneurial performance. Except that, this dissertation further examined the gender difference in work-family interface, and linked it with the gender difference in entrepreneurial performance. The dissertation succeeded to explain how several of work-family interface concepts and relationships can help address an important yet unanswered question: why do female-headed firms tend to under perform relative to male-headed firms, whether the performance is measured in terms of survivor or success?In practical application, the discoveries of this dissertation can be palyed important roles in three aspacts. First, afer systematic exploring to the category and effectiveness of entrepreneurs' work-family coping strategies, it will enforce enreprenerus' coping capability of WFC. Second, after scientific realizing the relationship between work-family interface and NVP, it will increase the level of entrepreneurs' NVP. Third, after deep examing the gender difference, it will create a healthy environment for female entrepreneurs.
Keywords/Search Tags:entrepreneur, work-family conflict, coping strategy, new venture performance
PDF Full Text Request
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