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This paper aims to enhance our understanding of work and wellbeing in the entrepreneurial society. We integrate research on proactive personality (PP) and job design to explore how entrepreneurs’ PP impacts their employees’ job satisfaction by shaping employee job design in a multi-source multilevel study of 43 entrepreneurs/firms and 511 of their employees. In contexts of firm instability, entrepreneurs’ PP was negatively associated with employee job satisfaction due to higher employee job demands. In stable firms, PP related positively to employee job satisfaction due to higher employee job control and social support. We replicate these findings for mental health as a broader indicator of employee wellbeing. Our study extends research on entrepreneur PP by considering its effect on employees. It advances understanding of the bright and dark sides of PP for others in the organization, and contributes new insights on the origins of job design and the quality of work in entrepreneur-led firms.

The remarkable ascent of entrepreneurship witnessed as a scientific field over the last 4 decades has been made possible by entrepreneurship’s ability to absorb theories, paradigms, and methods from other fields such as economics, psychology, sociology, geography, and even biology. The respectability of entrepreneurship as an academic discipline is now evidenced by many other fields starting to borrow from the entrepreneurship view. In the present paper, seven examples are given from this “pay back” development. These examples were first presented during a seminar at the Erasmus Entrepreneurship Event called what has the entrepreneurship view to offer to other academic fields? This article elaborates on the core ideas of these presentations and focuses on the overarching question of how entrepreneurship research impacts the development of other academic fields. We found that entrepreneurship research questions the core assumptions of other academic fields and provides new insights into the antecedents, mechanisms, and consequences of their respective core phenomena. Moreover, entrepreneurship research helps to legitimize other academic fields both practically and academically.

How can entrepreneurs protect their wellbeing during a crisis? Does engaging agility (namely, opportunity agility and planning agility) in response to adversity help entrepreneurs safeguard their wellbeing? Activated by adversity, agility may function as a specific resilience mechanism enabling positive adaption to crisis. We studied 3162 entrepreneurs from 20 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that more severe national lockdowns enhanced firm-level adversity for entrepreneurs and diminished their wellbeing. Moreover, entrepreneurs who combined opportunity agility with planning agility experienced higher wellbeing but planning agility alone lowered wellbeing. Entrepreneur agility offers a new agentic perspective to research on entrepreneur wellbeing., In Sweden the study was supported by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE) Grant no 2017-01063 and Grant no 2019-01311.

How can entrepreneurs protect their wellbeing during a crisis? Does engaging agility (namely, opportunity agility and planning agility) in response to adversity help entrepreneurs safeguard their wellbeing? Activated by adversity, agility may function as a specific resilience mechanism enabling positive adaption to crisis. We studied 3162 entrepreneurs from 20 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that more severe national lockdowns enhanced firm-level adversity for entrepreneurs and diminished their wellbeing. Moreover, entrepreneurs who combined opportunity agility with planning agility experienced higher wellbeing but planning agility alone lowered wellbeing. Entrepreneur agility offers a new agentic perspective to research on entrepreneur wellbeing.

Zusammenfassung Ukraine-Krieg, wirtschaftliche Folgen der Pandemie, Klimawandel, Strukturwandel – die Familienunternehmen in Europa stehen aktuell vor der Bewältigung vieler Herausforderungen. Wie können sie diese meistern? Und wie kann die Mittelstandspolitik sie hierbei unterstützen? Auf Basis ihrer jeweiligen wissenschaftlichen Forschungsergebnisse analysieren Friederike Welter, Alfredo De Massis, Arnis Sauka und Ute Stephan die aktuelle Situation der Familienunternehmen und geben konkrete Handlungsempfehlungen für die Wirtschaftspolitik. Demnach sollten vor allem die Besonderheiten von Familienunternehmen im gesetzgeberischen Prozess ressortübergreifend berücksichtigt werden, um deren Resilienz, Innovativität und Heterogenität dauerhaft zu stärken.

Research Summary: Past research views institutions as stable and slow to change and uses institutional differences to explain cross-national variation in entrepreneurship. This article introduces a new perspective to institutional theory, that of short-term institutional change. Integrating insights from cognitive science allows us to theorize not just about the significance of short-term institutional change but also about why and how deterioration versus improvements in institutions have distinct effects. We test how short-term institutional change impacts entrepreneurship in a cross-country multilevel study. We find that short-term change in the rule of law affects entrepreneurial entry and that institutional deterioration weighs heavier than institutional improvement. We argue and find that changes in the rule of law are more consequential for entrepreneurship compared to changes in business regulations. Managerial Summary: It is known that the quality of institutions affects individuals' decisions to pursue entrepreneurship. Yet, we newly investigate effects of year-to-year changes in national institutions. Not only changes in business regulations matter, but also changes in more fundamental institutional aspects, especially in the rule of law. We find that institutional change has an impact because, on its basis, potential entrepreneurs form expectations about the future and therefore about the riskiness of their investment. Deteriorations compared to improvements in the rule of law are more consequential for entrepreneurship, consistent with the fact that losses loom larger than gains in human decisions.

While academic research on recovery was rather segregated between occupational health psychology and management research at the beginning of the 20s century and streams of research developed independently, recent developments hint at a closing divide and better integration of recovery research across disciplines. This for example becomes evident in publications of researchers across the traditional outlets within both fields, as well as increasing close collaborations of researchers firmly rooted in one of the fields. In preparation of this special issue, the editors were interested in whether this development represents a convergence or even a true merging of research in these different disciplines. We therefore interviewed Prof. Sabine Sonnentag as expert from occupational health psychology research and Prof. Ute Stephan with expertise in management research. Both are excellent and world-famous researchers in their disciplines. We discussed the current state, the advances during the last years, and the future directions of recovery research in their respective fields. We also talked about their perspectives on integrative topics and about specific issues in both domains that might stimulate a new recovery management research agenda.

We study how entrepreneurs and their well-being are impacted by crises and which entrepreneurs are able to safeguard their well-being. We examine the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in a multilevel study of 3,149 entrepreneurs from 20 countries and draw attention to entrepreneur agility (flexible and adaptive action) both as a crisis response strategy and as a possible way for entrepreneurs to protect their well-being. We find that agile entrepreneurs, especially those that recognized new opportunities for their business in the pandemic, had better well-being during the pandemic (life satisfaction and vitality). Our findings offer further insights into agility as a response to adversity and whether it is enabled by cultural contexts supporting agility and entrepreneurs? human capital.

While academic research on recovery was rather segregated between occupational health psychology and management research at the beginning of the 20s century and streams of research developed independently, recent developments hint at a closing divide and better integration of recovery research across disciplines. This for example becomes evident in publications of researchers across the traditional outlets within both fields, as well as increasing close collaborations of researchers firmly rooted in one of the fields. In preparation of this special issue, the editors were interested in whether this development represents a convergence or even a true merging of research in these different disciplines. We therefore interviewed Prof. Sabine Sonnentag as expert from occupational health psychology research and Prof. Ute Stephan with expertise in management research. Both are excellent and world-famous researchers in their disciplines. We discussed the current state, the advances during the last years, and the future directions of recovery research in their respective fields. We also talked about their perspectives on integrative topics and about specific issues in both domains that might stimulate a new recovery management research agenda.

Firm performance is typically measured via objective financial indicators. However, researchers increasingly acknowledge that entrepreneurs do not measure their success solely in financial terms but that a range of often subjective indicators matter to them. This article contributes to the debate on entrepreneurial performance by studying how entrepreneurs assess their achieved success. ‘Entrepreneurs’ achieved success’ was conceptualized as a multi-faceted construct that includes entrepreneurs’ self-reported achievement of firm performance, workplace relationships, personal fulfilment, community impact, and personal financial rewards. It was measured via the Subjective Entrepreneurial Success–Achievement Scale (SES-AS). Over the course of three studies (N = 390) the factorial structure of ‘entrepreneurs’ achieved success’ was established and largely replicated in two cultures. Based on a nomological network, we documented relationships among ‘entrepreneurs’ achieved success’, quasi-objective indicators of firm performance, and entrepreneurs’ financial satisfaction, creativity, and health. Based on our research, we propose a new conceptual framework to study performance in the context of entrepreneurship. This framework acknowledges both the success criteria that entrepreneurs wish to achieve and those that they actually achieve, and extends our understanding of firm performance.

This study investigates why and where self-employment is related to higher levels of eudaimonic well-being. We focus on meaningfulness as an important eudaimonic process and subjective vi- tality as a eudaimonic well-being outcome that is central to entrepreneurs' proactivity. Building on self-determination theory, we posit that self-employment, relative to wage-employment, is a more self-determined and volitional career choice, which enhances the experience of mean- ingfulness at work and perceptions of work autonomy. In a multi-level study of 22,002 in- dividuals and 16 European countries, meaningfulness at work mediates the relationship between self-employment and subjective vitality and explains this relationship better than work au- tonomy. We identify moderating effects of context: the societal legitimacy of entrepreneurship in a country affects the choice set of alternative career options that individuals can consider and thus shapes the experience of meaningfulness at work and work autonomy, and thereby in- directly subjective vitality. These findings expand our understanding of eudaimonic well-being, entrepreneurs' work, and the role of context in entrepreneurship and well-being research. They complement existing research on hedonic well-being of entrepreneurs and extend the scarce literature on their eudaimonic well-being.

There is limited understanding of the precise circumstances under which environmental actions-such as environmental innovation-contribute to firm performance. Building on the resource-based view and on stakeholder theory, this study argues that the general positive effect of environmental innovation on financial performance varies significantly with firm size and the motives underlying a firm's engagement in environmental innovation. Integrating survey data and lagged annual account data on 1761 Flemish companies, we find that larger firms benefit financially from environmental innovation driven by regulation or industry codes of conduct, while smaller firms benefit from environmental innovation introduced in response to customer demand. While it is increasingly accepted that environmental innovation relates positively with firm performance, the current study highlights important boundary conditions of this relationship.

The conceptualization of destructive leadership has received increasing attention in recent times. Accordingly, researchers have developed a theoretical model of destructive leadership that highlights two manifestations as follows: (1) leading followers towards goals that contradict the organization’s interests and (2) the use of harmful methods in leading followers. The two manifestations of destructive leadership point to the concept being multidimensional. However, researchers rarely investigate the dimensionality of destructive leadership when measuring the concept in general and in instructor–student relationships. Moreover, the most prominent measure of destructive leadership fails to capture its two manifestations adequately. To address the apparent mismatch between the theory and measurement of destructive instructor-leadership, we enhance an existing measure of destructive leadership. Using a sample of 174 students from the U.K., the findings indicated that the two manifestations of destructive instructor-leadership can be measured by 13 items, and was composed of three dimensions including, irresponsibility, victimization and callous communication. These findings along with limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The level of entrepreneurial activity is higher in emerging markets than in developed economies, driven by high levels of necessity entry and less daunting entry barriers, especially in the informal sector. However, a gap remains in our understanding of its extent and of the drivers of its change. This chapter addresses this gap by conceptualizing and providing evidence about the scale and nature of entrepreneurship in emerging markets. The chapter begins with an empirical analysis of entrepreneurship in emerging economies. In particular, it contrasts the way in which human capital is utilized by entrepreneurs in emerging market economies and in developed countries. The chapter goes on to the theme of human capital, bringing in theory, and considering entrepreneurship in emerging economies at the individual level as well as the role of entrepreneurs’ social capital in the emerging economy context. Furthermore, it considers the scale and impact of the repatriation of human and social capital from abroad, which is found to play an important role in entrepreneurship in many emerging economies, especially when considering innovation. The survey goes on to provide a macro-level analysis, with cross-country comparisons of the effects of institutions and finance on entrepreneurial activity in emerging markets. It concludes by suggesting avenues for future research.

Prior research has shown that trait creativity is important for becoming an entrepreneur and successful in business. We explore a new perspective by investigating how recovery from work stress influences entrepreneurs’ daily idea generation, a key aspect of creativity. Physio-logical and mental recovery enables the cognitive processes of creative problem-solving. Moreover, differences in mental recovery processes help to explain age-related changes in en-trepreneurs’ creativity. Multilevel analyses based on 415 daily data from 62 entrepreneurs support our predictions. Our study introduces a new “state” perspective to understanding en-trepreneurs’ creativity, and highlights the critical role of recovery processes for idea genera-tion.

Researchers are becoming increasingly interested in the use of transformational leadership theory in higher education teaching (often referred to as transformational instructor-leadership). Much of this body of research investigates a direct association between transformational instructor-leadership and student outcomes. In the present study, we take a step further by investigating (a) student engagement as a mechanism in the relationship between transformational instructor-leadership and students’ academic performance and (b) structural distance as a moderator of the relationship between transformational instructor-leadership and student engagement. Using a sample of 183 students across the UK, the findings supported student engagement as a full mediator, but did not support structural distance as a moderator. This study contributes to theory by (a) showing a key underlying process through which transformational instructor-leadership is related to students’ academic performance and (b) empirically examining all three dimensions of student engagement. Limitations, suggestions for future research and practical implications are discussed.

Interest in entrepreneurs’ mental health and well-being (MWB) is growing in recognition of the role of MWB in entrepreneurs’ decision making, motivation, and action. Yet relevant knowledge is dispersed across disciplines, which makes what we currently understand about entrepreneurs’ MWB unclear. In this systematic review I integrate insights from 144 empirical studies. These studies show that research is focused on three research questions: (1) Do different types of entrepreneurs differ in their MWB? What are the (2) antecedents and (3) consequences of entrepreneurs’ MWB? The review systematizes evidence on known antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurs’ MWB but also reveals overlooked and undertheorized sources and outcomes of entrepreneurs’ MWB. The review provides a mapping and framework that advance research on entrepreneurs’ MWB and help to position entrepreneurs’ MWB more centrally in management and entrepreneurship research. It calls for researchers to go beyond applying models developed for employees to understand entrepreneurs. Instead, the findings point the way to developing a dedicated theory of entrepreneurial work and MWB that is dynamic, socialized, and open to considering context and acknowledges variability and fluidity across entrepreneurs’ life domains, as well as the centrality of work for entrepreneurs’ identity.

Purpose - The paper develops a model of employee innovative behavior conceptualizing it as distinct from innovation outputs and as a multi-faceted behavior rather than a simple count of ‘innovative acts’ by employees. It understands individual employee innovative behaviors as a micro-foundation of firm intrapreneurship that is embedded in and influenced by contextual factors such as managerial, organizational and cultural support for innovation. Building from a review of existing employee innovative behavior scales and theoretical considerations we develop and validate the Innovative Behavior Inventory (IBI) and the Innovation Support Inventory (ISI). Design/methodology/approach – Two pilot studies, a third validation study in the Czech Republic and a fourth cross-cultural validation study using population representative samples from Switzerland, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic (n=2,812 employees and 450 entrepreneurs) were conducted. Findings - Both inventories were reliable and showed factorial, criterion, convergent and discriminant validity as well as cross-cultural equivalence. Employee innovative behavior was supported as comprising of idea generation, idea search, idea communication, implementation starting activities, involving others and overcoming obstacles. Managerial support was the most proximal contextual influence on innovative behavior and mediated the effect of organizational support and national culture. Originality/value - The paper advances our understanding of employee innovative behavior as a multi-faceted phenomenon and the contextual factors influencing it. Where past research typically focuses on convenience samples within a particular country, we offer first robust evidence that our model of employee innovative behavior generalizes across cultures and types of samples. Our model and the IBI and ISI inventories enable researchers to build a deeper understanding of the important micro-foundation underpinning intrapreneurial behavior in