Happy and Proactive? The Role of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well–Being in Business Owners’ Personal Initiative

Abstract

This two-year study with 122 business owners examined the link between affective wellbeing and task-oriented as well as relationship-oriented personal initiative (PI). We tested two complementary models explaining the link between well-being and PI: (1) broaden-andbuild theory and (2) self-regulation as limited resource approach. In line with current research on well-being, we differentiated between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being using life satisfaction and vigor as indicators. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that only vigor predicted both forms of PI. Our results support the self-regulation approach and indicate that eudaimonic well-being is the relevant affective well-being dimension for proactive behavior.

The influence of anticipated regret on business start-up behaviour

“…Prior studies show that entrepreneurial emotions influence both the creation (Hayton and Cholakova, 2012) and exploitation of ideas (Welpe et al, 2012), as well as risk perceptions in entrepreneurial decision making (Podoynitsyna et al, 2012) and the extent and intensity of proactive behaviour (Hahn et al, 2012).…”

The Impact of Entrepreneurial Culture Dimensions on Entrepreneurial Intention: A Cross Cultural Study

“…Personal initiative is also considered as a critical predictor of considering entrepreneurship [29]. Indeed, personal initiative consists of three facets that are indispensible for any future entrepreneur, namely, self-starting action, proactive and future oriented behavior, and overcoming barriers on the way toward the goal [29].…”

Entrepreneurs happiness, personal initiatives and firm performance: evidence from China

“…Therefore, Eudaimonic Well-Being (EWB) can stimulate entrepreneurs' passion (Cardonet al, 2012) and drive them to actively take initiatives in firm internal issues and external network extension (Hahn et al,2012). So, we argue that entrepreneurs'Eudaimonic Well-Being (EWB) is positively related to their personal initiatives.…”

“…Eudaimonic Well-Being used the item like "I believe the management of the enterprise is the right life path for me", etc. Task-oriented personal initiative mainly referred to the scale developed by Hahn et al(2012), and Relationship-oriented personal initiative were borrowed from Zhao, Frese & Giardini(2010 Business & Management -RJBM (2015), Vol.2(3) Song, Lu, Li 303 ROE five indicators. All questions were self-evaluated by entrepreneurs in a 7 Likert scale and reliability tests indicated all the scales were reliable test and confirmatory factor analysis.…”