XPERIENCED ENTREPRENEURS AND STRESS E

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E

XPERIENCED ENTREPRENEURS AND STRESS

‘’HOW UNDERGO ENTREPRENEURS RELATED STRESS AND WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES

Master Thesis

University of Groningen

Faculty of Economics and business

By:

Hidde Steven Massier

S2539144

h.s.massier@student.rug.nl

Supervisors: Dr. I. Singeram

Co-assessor: Dr. ir. J. Kraaijenbrink

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A

BSTRACT

This research studies the causes of entrepreneurial stress and their consequences. In order to improve performance and avoid negative consequences such as mental diseases which have catastrophic effects on entrepreneurs and their firms. This study investigates how entrepreneurs cope with stress. In addition, comparisons have been made between high-tech entrepreneurs and low-tech entrepreneurs since they differ in their characteristics. A multiple case study among three experienced high-tech entrepreneurs, three non-experienced high-tech entrepreneurs, three experienced low-tech entrepreneurs and three non-experienced low-tech entrepreneurs has been done. Experienced entrepreneurs seem to cope better with stress then non-experienced entrepreneurs. High-tech entrepreneurs have to cope with other causes of stress then low-tech entrepreneurs due the rapidly changing market. This study shows the cause of entrepreneurial stress and how entrepreneurs cope with stress.

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1.

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NTRODUCTION

Entrepreneurs are very important for the economy, in every continent country or town. From a justified macroeconomic perspective, entrepreneurship is also a key element for job creation, economic growth and development of a region or a country (Acs & Audretsch, 1990; Carree & Thurik, 2003). For example, 99,8% companies in the Netherlands are labeled as small and medium sized enterprises (CBS, 2015). 70% of all employees are employed by small sized enterprises in the Netherlands (CBS, 2015). Furthermore, in 2014 65.000 new companies were registered and small medium sized enterprises contributed 61% of the domestic growth product in the Netherlands (CBS, 2015). In addition, high-technology firms are considered as important for economic growth (Greenhalgh & Rogers, 2010). Furthermore, high-tech entrepreneurs have to face higher risk strategies due to the rapidly changing market and shorter product cycles than other entrepreneurs (Roberts & Senturia, 1996; Benkenstein & Bloch, 1993). Some consequences of being self-employ are stress, long working hours and above all entrepreneurial risk (Cardon & Patel, 2015). On the other hand, self-employed people experience on average, fewer negative emotions such as fear of failure and grief than employees (Patzelt & Shepherd, 2011). Burnout is the number three on the list of occupational diseases in the Netherlands among female entrepreneurs (CBS, 2015). The estimated costs for the Dutch society as a result of burnouts and other mental health issues are 20 billion per year (OECD, 2014). When an entrepreneur is unable to work, for example due a burnout, an entrepreneur can’t/won’t receive a sickness benefit in contrast to employees (Van der Kwast & ter Berg, 2012). Therefore, the financial consequences for entrepreneurs could be vast, since the revenues of the firm will drop down (Van der Kwast et al., 2012).

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entrepreneurs reducing stress. How the entrepreneurs are coping with stress determines the influences on performance (Akande, 1994). Therefore, the theory about entrepreneurial stress and long-term survival expects a u-shaped relationship between stress and performance that is based on the assumption that an employee/entrepreneur needs to be challenged to be alert and effortful in doing his work (Rauch et al., 2007). Nevertheless this theory lacks empirical support (Srivastava & Krishna, 1986). A different factor that influences cope with stress is experience; people who repeatedly experience stress try to prevent the reoccurring discrepancies and become more proactive and long-term oriented (Fay & Sonnentag). High-tech entrepreneurs were found to face more stress due to the characteristics of the high-tech industry such as short product life cycle and strong international competition (Malakh-Pines & Èzbilgin, 2010). This study will be about the entrepreneurial stress experienced by entrepreneurs, possible differences between high-tech and low-tech entrepreneurs and the role of experience in these differences.

Researchers have found multiple relationships between stress and performance. Despite the attention of this topic in previous literature, there is still no univocal point of view for the relationship between stress and performance (Srivastava et al., 2007). The limited awareness among entrepreneurs may influence the survival rate of their firm and long-term performance of their business (Watson, 2007). Entrepreneurs have to find the ultimate level of stress to reach peak-performance and to avoid negative consequences such as burnout. Since stress is not a tangible asset this research will study the perceived stress as reported by entrepreneurs.

Based on the identified literature gap and the goals of this research, the formulated research question is: ‘How undergo entrepreneurs related stress and what are the consequences regarding performance?’ In addition, a sub question is formulated: ‘What is the influence of social support on coping with stress?’

The goal of this study is to create knowledge about the causes of stress, coping with stress and the relationship between stress and performance. In addition, the influence of social support on the relationship between stress and performance will be studied. This research will be useful for future entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs to reach peak-performance and avoiding negative consequences of stress. Furthermore, policy makers can make use of this research when creating policy regarding improving performance and avoiding mental diseases. In this research a comparison will be made between experienced and non-experienced entrepreneurs, in order to discover if experienced entrepreneurs cope better with stress. Furthermore, do high-tech entrepreneurs cope different with stress due to more uncertainties in the environment than low-tech entrepreneurs.

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academic literature or when literature related to phenomenon is still very exploratory in nature (Dyer & Wilkens, 1991). In this case, how entrepreneurs’ perceived stress that influence performance is still exploratory (Rauch et al., 2007). This research wants to discover the experience that entrepreneurs perceived. In addition, how do entrepreneurs cope with the perceived stress. Furthermore, how affects does social support affects the relation between stress and performance. The theory development paradigm has five steps according to Eisenhardt (1989). First, select a business phenomenon that is generally recognized in companies. The next step is observation of the phenomenon, doing case studies. In this case there be make use of interviews with experienced entrepreneurs and non-experienced entrepreneurs. The outcomes of the interviews will result in a set of propositions. Step four in this research is comparing emerging insights to existing literature, especially those that are new or different from received ideas. The final step, make propositions that are changes of/or additions to existing theories.

From a theoretical perspective, this study will contribute in multiple ways. First, in this study the Job Demand-Control by Karasek & Theorell (1979) will be used which examined stressors and stress reactions in the context of entrepreneurship because it’s well known and common used, for example to measure the level of stress among employees. Therefore, it will be interesting to use this among entrepreneurs. Furthermore, the results of this study can be compared with studies among other employees and entrepreneurs. Second, entrepreneurial activities which causes stress will be add into the JDC-model (Gartner & Reynolds, 1966). This study will contribute to the field of entrepreneurship by demonstrating in which way stressors promote or harm the firm performance.

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ITERATURE REVIEW

The Job Demand-Control model by Karasek & Theorell (1979) is one of the most cited models in the business field. This model is also known as the JDC model (Job Demand-Control model) according Rodríguez, Bravo, Peiró & Schaufeli (2001). This model highlights two factors of working, namely job demands and job control (Karasek, 1979). Job decision latitude is also commonly used as term for this variable (Karasek et al., 1981). Karasek proposed the Job Strain model that postulates that psychological stress do not results from a single aspect of the work environment, but from the joint effects of the demands of a work situation and the range of decision-making freedom (discretion) available to the worker facing those demands (Karasek, 1979). Thus, it is important to mention that stress did not come from just a high demand; it is caused by a combination of high demand and low control.

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In this section stress will be discussed. For the purpose of this studyit is important to define stress. Therefore stress will firstly be discussed in general. Thereafter, the more specific job stress, entrepreneurial stress, is explained. The stress concept of Hans Selye is one of the most used concepts among researchers in this field (Mason, 1975). Stress could be defined as non-specific neuroendocrine response of the body (Selye, 1936). In a later stage, neuroendocrine is removed, because also other organ systems of the body are involved in stress response (Selye, 1971). A more recent definition of Selye (1974) was the non-specific response of the body to any demand.

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The Job Demand-Control model by Karasek & Theorell (1979) is one of the most cited models in the business field. This model is also known as the JDC model (Job Demand-Control model) according Rodríguez, Bravo, Peiró & Schaufeli (2001). This model highlights two factors of working, namely job demands and job control (Karasek, 1979). Job decision latitude is also commonly used as term for this variable (Karasek, Baker, Marxer, Ahlbom & Theorell, 1981). Karasek proposed the Job Stress model that postulates that psychological stress do not results from a single aspect of the work environment, but from the joint effects of the demands of a work situation and the range of decision-making freedom (discretion) available to the worker facing those demands (Karasek, 1979). Thus, it is important to mention that stress did not come from just a high demand; it is caused by a combination of high demand and low control.

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Table 1. Entrepreneurial activities

ORGANIZATION/ VENTURE BUILDING

RESOURCE

MANAGEMENT MARKETING PRODUCTION

RESPONDING TO GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY Business Opportunity Development Finance: saved money to invest, Asking for funding, Invested own money Social Networking (customers, other businesses, suppliers) Building Prototypes Applied patent/license Devoted Full-time Human: hiring employees, organizing start-up team Customer Outreach Development of models, services Environmental Impact and Sustainability Prepared a Business Plan Building + Equipment: bought facilities, looked for facilities, rent/lease Establishing Partnerships Outsourcing / Managing Production Process Dealing with competition

Formed Legal Entity

In general, all entrepreneurial activities can be fitted into these categories (Carter, 1996). With help of these categories the causes of stress can be shown. In addition, this study expects that

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2.2.2

J

The second factor of the JDC-model, job control concerns to the extent to which an individual feels they can exert influence over tasks they face and are most often operationalized through the constructs of skill discretion and decision authority (Van der Doef & Maes, 1999). The skill discretion component reflects mostly problems affection on task variety (Van der Doef et al., 1999). Entrepreneurs have generally high variety of activities (Van der Doef et al., 1999). The decision authority component is generally referring to the opportunity to making independent decisions, from the entrepreneurial view the influence of his say in what happens in the workplace (Van der Doef et al., 1999). As mentioned before, entrepreneurs have to deal with organization/venture building, resource management, marketing, production and responding to government and society (Carter et al., 1996). Thus, it’s important to know the level of control because this sets the level of perceived stress in combination with the demand. In the next paragraph the results of the JDC-model will be given.

There are in total are four combinations of demand and control. Which are known as low strain, active, passive and high strain jobs. The outcomes can be predicted through a combination of job demands and job decision latitude (Karasek et al., 1981). A job is known as an ‘active’ job when a job has a high job demand and also a high control. (Pinto, Dawood & Pinto, 2014). On the other side, jobs that offer low demands and also low control are named as ‘passive’ jobs (Pinto et al., 2014). Furthermore, jobs with low job demands and high control are called as ‘low strain’ (Pinto et al., 2014). And finally, ‘high strain’ type of jobs, when there are high demands with low control (Pinto et al., 2014). From the stress perspective, jobs with high strain in general cause more stress due to the negative implications of carrying high demands but a perceived inability to control one’s work environment (Pinto et al., 2014). Therefore, this study are interested in activities or combination of activities that have high demand and low control are interesting. There is an overview of type of jobs in table two below.

Table 2. Type of jobs

Job control

High Low

Job Demand

High Active High strain

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The model has been criticized after multiple independent testing found the results to be contradictory (de Jonge & Kompier, 1997; Van der Doef et al., 1999). Furthermore, it was argued that the JDC model is oversimplified reality (Baker, 1985; Parkes, 1991; Johnson & Hall, 1988). However, for the purpose of this study, this model is very useful to measure the amount of stress, the cause of stress in combination with the categorized entrepreneurial activities.

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Performance is defined as a task or operation seen in terms of how successfully it is performed according to the Oxford English Dictionary. In this study there is made a distinction between personal performance and firm performance. Personal performance is based on the outcome of the efforts of the entrepreneur. Firm performance, logically, can have two outcomes: success (continuity of operation) or failure (ceasing of operation) (Pasanen, 2003). In broad terms, firm performance is determined by the success of selling products or services in the market, and, by the effectiveness of organizing and transforming inputs, for example labor and capital, into sellable products or services (Nickell, Nicolitsas, Dryden, 1997). Firm performance could be measured using turnover, revenues that a company receives from its business activities (Asplund & Nocke, 2006).

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I

Rauch et al. (2007) argue that business owners will react on stress and, therefore, entrepreneurs with high levels of stress will perform better than entrepreneurs with low levels of stress. This is based on control theory framework (Carver & Scheier, 1982). Stress, is the result of our expectations, greed, desires and ambitious (Vasumathi et al., 2003). Stress occurs when there is a discrepancy between these and the outcome of our efforts to achieve success (Edwards, 1992). This discrepancy causes health problems (Rauch et al., 2007).

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relationship, is based on the assumption that an employee/entrepreneur needs to be challenged to be alert and effortful in doing his work (Rauch et al., 2007). Small business owners should continually search for the optimum stress point (Akande, 1994). Stress creates alertness to take action and can be positive when it stimulates motivation and achievement (Akande, 1994). An entrepreneur without some stress would not be challenged and excited enough to perform the job. Thus, optimum stress levels causes could peak performances for the small business owner. However, the empirical support is only limited (Srivastava & Krishna, 1986). Finally, there is theory that found that stress affects performance positive. Stress is a positive predictor of long-term survival of small businesses (Rauch et al., 2007). This is based on the stress that activates coping strategies to reduce the discrepancies between and the current desired state (Rauch et al., 2007). Furthermore, in general entrepreneurs face a lot of stress in their task of running a business. Characteristics are, for example, hours, high time pressure, role conflicts, they have to react to many economic demand factors and, eventually, to cope with past failures (Kuratko, 2016). Managing stressful events successfully may result in a strong market position, success and long-term survival (Rauch et al., 2007). Based on the literature, this research expects that the amount of stress and how the entrepreneurs cope with stress determine the influence of stress on performance. In addition, this study expects that too much stress have negative influences due regulation capacity becomes less when stressed. However, a bit of stress gets the entrepreneur challenged and motivated to perform the job. Therefore, a u-shaped relation is expected in this research.

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2.4

S

Social support is considered as ‘work resources’ (Potoku, 2015). There are in general two kinds of social support: (1) emotional support and (2) tangible help. Examples of emotional support are love, affection, sympathy, understanding, friendship and intimacy. Examples of tangible help are medical services and financial aid. The support could be derived at work and at home (Caplan et al., 1975). Social support from a supervisor, peers, and from subordinates, conditions the effects of job stress (Caplan, 1971). A general assumption is that social support seems to act as a buffer between job stress and negative consequences (Cohen & McKay, 1984). Furthermore, in a study of men who were forced to change their jobs when the plant closed, it was found that health levels became elevate but only for those men who received low social support from their wives, neighbors, and friends (Cobb, 1974). Entrepreneurs cannot be successful alone they need support (Aldrich & Zimmer, 1986). Furthermore, networks are import to have entrepreneurial success (Reynolds, 1991). Successful entrepreneurs rely on efficient networks, which include all the persons connected by any kind of relationship (Reynolds, 1991). Examples are friend, suppliers, facilities, clients, colleagues and so on (Reynolds, 1991). Furthermore, social support at work may have positive affect on the relationship between job stress and heart disease (Johnson, 1996). In addition, social support may modify the impact of psychosocial demands (Johnson, 1996). To be precise, this suggests that people experiencing low social support in combination with high psychical demand and low control experience the highest relative risk for cardiovascular disease as compared to other people undergoing other combinations of demand-control and social support (Johnson, 1996). Therefore, the JDC model was revised by adding social dimension (Johnson et al., 1988). Thus this model, with the addition of social support is the best way to investigate the job-demands, job-control and social support (Johnson et al., 1996). Furthermore, because it is common used for employees and entrepreneurs, the results could be easy compared. Based on the literature, this study expects that social support is helping entrepreneur coping with stress. For example, through release the stress for entrepreneurs. Therefore, the negative consequences will be reduced which improves performance.

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accompanying financial, psychological, and social risks; and receiving the resulting rewards of monetary and personal satisfaction (Hisrich & Peters, 1989). In this research the definition of Stewart & Roth (2001) will be used, venture ownership. This definition is used because it is easy to check and it most commonly reflected in entrepreneurial literature according to Stewart & Roth (2007).

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Entrepreneurship is contributing to economic growth by introducing innovations, creating change, creating competition and enhancing rivalry (Carree & Thurik, 2003). High technology involves economic growth and jobs with high wages (Steenhuis & Bruijn, 2006). Therefore, it is interesting to make a distinction between high and low-tech firms. High-tech firms are generally driven to adapt, innovate, and adopt higher risk strategies, such as exporting, to survive (Roberts & Senturia, 1996). In recognition of the different context of high-tech firms. High-technology firms face a strategic landscape in which rapidly changing markets and short product life cycles, combined with high product development costs and global competition, create turbulent business environments (Benkenstein & Bloch, 1993). In this study high-tech business is defined as one that produces hardware or software for computers and communications or a company which although not involved in research and development, depends completely upon the application and leveraging of software for its entrepreneurial success (Taylor, Strom & Renz, 2014). Furthermore, high-tech firms are differentiated with other firms, for example the rapidity of change and the speed of cycles of learning, need for constant innovation to stay ahead of the market and the low age of staff in positions of responsibility (Taylor, Strom & Renz, 2014). Moreover, an empirical study found that high-tech start-ups benefit in two related ways from patenting (Helmers & Rogers, 2011). Namely, it’s associated with a higher rate of survival and higher asset growth within a firm’s first five years of existence (Helmers & Rogers, 2011). Therefore, this study expects that high-tech entrepreneurs have a high demand and low control on responding to ‘government and society’, especially ‘applied patent/license’ and ‘dealing with competition’.

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3.0

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ETHOD

This chapter describes the methodology, that describes the way of thinking about and studying social reality used in this research (Strauss, 1990). This chapter includes the methods, a set of procedures and techniques for gathering and analyzing data that are used in this study (Strauss, 1990). The first paragraph presents the data collection and describes the characteristics of the participating entrepreneurs. The second paragraph explains the research design, how this study is conducted. The third paragraph, the section data analysis provides an overview of how the coding process was conducted and how the data were established. And finally, the controllability, reliability and validity of the study will be discussed.

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3.1.1

D

In total, twelve entrepreneurs have been interviewed, eleven males and one female. The age is between 25 and 38 years old. The entrepreneurs are divided among three education levels. Four participants are WO educated, two participants are HBO educated and six participants are MBO educated. Moreover, fifty percent of them are high-tech entrepreneurs and the other fifty percentage low-tech entrepreneurs. Furthermore, fifty percent entrepreneurs are experienced and fifty percent are non-experienced. Among the participants there are fifty percent high-tech entrepreneurs and fifty percent low-tech entrepreneurs. To conclude, twenty-five percent are experienced high-tech entrepreneurs, twenty-five percent are non-experienced high-tech entrepreneur, twenty-five percent are experienced low-tech entrepreneurs and twenty-five percent are non-experienced low-tech entrepreneurs. The descriptive data of the participants are shown below in table three below.

Table 3. Overview of participants

Interviewee Tech level Experienced Education Age Gender

E1 High Yes WO 26 Male

E2 High Yes HBO 30 Male

E3 High No WO 36 Male

E4 High No HBO 28 Male

E5 High Yes WO 30 Male

E6 High No MBO 27 Male

E7 Low Yes MBO 36 Male

E8 Low Yes MBO 29 Male

E9 Low No MBO 36 Male

E10 Low No MBO 25 Female

E11 Low No MBO 35 Male

E12 Low Yes WO 38 Male

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3.2

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D

The aim of this study is to discover the consequences of stress on performance. Furthermore, due to the immature literature field, there is not much known about the difference between high- and low-tech entrepreneurs and differences between the amount and cause of stress depending on experience in this field. This study is applying a theory developing approach. For the purpose of this study, qualitative research has been used. Qualitative data contains a great variety, which means that there is not a standard format that can be used in order to analyse this data (Saunders, Lewis &Thornhill, 2009). This suits for the purpose of this study, obtaining more information about entrepreneurial stress and how entrepreneurs are coping with stress. It will help creating insights of demand and control, which cause entrepreneurial stress (Langford, 2012). This study contains a multiple-case design, which permits ‘replication’ logic in which cases are treated as a series of independent analyses that can confirm or disconfirm the emerging conceptual insights (Yin, 2009). To investigate possible features relating to entrepreneurial stress, an extensive literate review is executed. This research is built on three parts. Namely, an entrepreneurial grid, story-telling exercise and semi-structured interviews. The grid, story-telling exercise and semi-semi-structured interviews are developed by Hatak, Singaram, Wolf & Morren (2016), a special thank for them. Different parts are used in this study to obtain information from different angles. First, the grid gave a great insight of the demand and control factors. Second, through the story-telling exercise this research obtains information about their daily life as an entrepreneur. Moreover, this study includes a semi-structured interview to obtain information on how the entrepreneurs experience stress, the influence of social support and the consequences of entrepreneurial stress. All parts are merged in one which is displayed on page 46.

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3.2.2

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For the purpose of this study, information from diverse angles was obtained. Therefore, this study includes a story-telling exercise. Storytelling can be described as an approach which have diverse pictures ‘narrative’ is sequence and consequence: events are selected, organized, connected and evaluated as meaningful for a particular audience (Hinchman & Hinchman, 1997). The participants that are asked to tell the story interpret the world and experience in the pictures (Hinchman et al., 1997). Contributions of storytelling understand multiple perspectives, observing and analyzing behaviors in context and looking for patterns in what entrepreneurs do and think (Patton, 2005). In this study, pictures are selected that characterized divers entrepreneurial activities. Therefore, the participants of this study will describe their entrepreneurial experience. This will give more information on their activities and the causes of possible stress factors. There are seven pictures presented to the participants. There are two versions, one for each gender. This is done to ensure the participants interpret it as their world. On the first picture an alarm clock is shown. And picture two is a person working on a laptop. In picture three a person calling at the office is depicted. The fourth picture contains a meeting. The fifth picture shows a person giving an presentation. A combination of a letter from the Dutch tax office, a mark of the Dutch chamber of commence and a drop box with ‘administration’ is shown in picture six. The last picture showed a train of in the last picture, a train is pictured. Therefore, this research will obtain more background information on the daily life of an entrepreneur. Furthermore, it will give insights of the causes of stress.

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information about the causes of entrepreneurial stress, the influence of stress, the effect of social support and how it affects performance.

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The first step of the analysis was a within-case analysis to gain notoriety with the data. The within-case analysis was executed by analyzing the grid, story-telling, reading the interview transcript, coding the interviews and story-telling and interpreting it (Eisenhardt, 1989). Coding is defined as the analytic processes through which data are fractured, conceptualized and integrated into theory (Straus, 1990). Codes include a label with an explanation of meanings, compiled during the study. It’s important to mention, for the purposes of coding the meaning of words matters more than the words themselves (Miles & Huberman, 1994). The codes are demand, control, social support, coping with stress and outcome of stress. These codes are based on the JDC-model (Karasek et al., 1979) and social support (Johnson et al., 1988). The codes are summarized in appendix two, which can be found on page 57. The categories stated in the grid are organization/venture building, resource management, marketing, production and responding to government and society (Carter et al., 1996). When analyzing the results, it must be taken into account that the answers may have been influenced by how the grid, story-telling and interview questions are interpreted.

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Controllability explains how the study is executed (van Aken, Berends & Van der Bij, 2012). To achieve a high level of controllability this study explained very clear how the data is collected, participants selected, which questions are asked, how the data is analysed and how the conclusions are drawn. Furthermore, the controllability for this study is guaranteed by sharing the individual interviews and the results with I. Singaram, who is a specialist in this field (van Aken et al., 2012).

Validity can be defined as the degree to which the finding is interpreted in a correct way. The validity of this study was assessed by collaboration with I. Singeram, which resulted in critical revisions. Validity can be explained distinguished into external validity, to what extent can an effect in research, be generalized to populations, settings, treatment variables, and measurement variables (Patton, 2005). Furthermore, internal validity, which ensures that a researcher’s experiment design closely follows the principle of cause and effect (Patton, 2005). In order to improve internal validity, the data were changed in a systematic way and composed based on the research model. Furthermore, the external validity of this study is enhanced by in-depth interviews with twelve entrepreneurs. Therefore, this research enhanced external validity by using entrepreneurs from various industries.

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ESULTS

In this section the results will be shown. The following subsections are stress in general, demand, control and outcomes of stress. In each subsection the outcome starts with general results and ends with differences among the groups. Stress in general will be discussed first.

4.1

S

The interviewees describe stress in general as to having ‘to many problems at once’ (E4), ‘having a feeling of no control, to many tasks at once’ (E5), ‘being busy without control. Work hard, without knowing what to do is stress to me ‘ (E6), ‘stress, derives from a mistake, time-pressure and you have to make decisions fast.’ (E8), ‘stress comes from having no control’ (E9), ‘Stress in general, when you do not have control and have to do to much tasks at the same time.’ (E12). The participants describe stress in ways of to many problems or high demand. Also they mention control, in case of stress, having no or low control. There are no significant differences among the different participant categories. Therefore, the research question can be answered without making any distinctions.

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In this subsection, the difference sources of the demand are displayed, they have been separated, in order to show more in-depth information. The sources are marketing, organization building, resources, production process and finally, responding to government and society.

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entrepreneurs, four versus one time mentioned. Therefore, this research assumes that partnerships are more important for high-tech firms. Furthermore, there are no differences between the groups.

4.2.2

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As mentioned before, there is a connection between growth and the relation between marketing and organization building. This is shown by clear distinct between non-experienced entrepreneurs and experienced entrepreneurs in the case of demand due organization building. Only one experienced entrepreneur mention it in the grid, however it’s ticked five out of six times by non-experienced. They mentioned ‘business opportunity development’ most of the times, namely four times. In the interview they mentioned: ‘I call a lot, to investigate, get new contacts and looking for new opportunities’ (E9), ‘We want to grow, so finding new customers and partners is demanding.’ (E11). These examples examine also the link between organization building and marketing. As a result, this research assumes that non-experienced entrepreneurs found organization building more demanding. This indicates that marketing is a common used way to growth for non-experienced entrepreneurs. An experienced entrepreneur pointed out why organization building is demanding and explained the link with resources and the production process: ‘At the moment, find a new office because of the growth.’ ‘Because of the growth, it is very busy. Time pressures from customers to deliver as quickly as possible. That gives pressure because of the to small workforce.’ This ensures a high demand for this entrepreneur. Furthermore, he mentioned the demand on human resources in combination with the pressure on the production process. This indicates that there is a connection between problems with resources and the production process. To conclude, this assumes that non-experienced entrepreneurs found organization more demanding based on the ‘business opportunity development’ answers. Moreover, it seems that low-tech entrepreneurs build their organization more through marketing then high-tech entrepreneurs.

4.2.3 RESOURCES

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4.2.4 PRODUCTION PROCESS

To start with, it is worth mentioning that high-tech entrepreneurs have to cope with more technical challenges. Examples are: ‘Situations that are really demanding for me are the one's that are problems that difficult to find solutions and in combination with a high time pressure. I am not in control at that moment.’ (E5) and ‘too many problems at once, when the machinery fails and a lot of customers asking things of me.’ (E4). On the other hand, low-tech entrepreneurs mentioned: ‘Keep working on schedule, deliver quality in restricted time.’ (E10) and ‘when the products do not have the right quality and there is high pressure to deliver on time.’ (E12). Thus, this indicates that high-tech entrepreneurs have to cope with stress that derives from more technical challenges in comparison with low-tech entrepreneurs. Furthermore, for experienced entrepreneurs it seems that the production process is more demanding then the non-experienced entrepreneurs.

4.2.5 RESPONDING TO GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY

Finally, the results of government and society, six entrepreneurs pointed out the demand derive from ‘dealing with competition’. For example a high-tech entrepreneur mentioned: ‘for me, when a big/important customers threaten to leave or does leave, I think about the financial consequences, this makes me stressed.’ (E2) This example shows how they feel about customers (marketing) and losing them to competitors (dealing with competition). In this particular situation, he has a feeling of low control about customers. This led to stress. An example of low-tech entrepreneur: ‘We want to grow, so finding new customers and partners is demanding.’ (E11). This holds also a relation with growth (business opportunity development) and marketing (customer outreach/establishing partnerships). To conclude, among high-tech entrepreneurs ‘dealing with competition’ is ticked four times, under low-tech entrepreneurs only two times. It is indicating that high-tech entrepreneurs found ‘dealing with competition’ more demanding then low-tech entrepreneurs. Furthermore, it seems that there are no differences between experienced and non-experienced entrepreneurs.

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4.3.1 FEELING OF LEAST CONTROL

There are multiple interesting results about control. First, there are three entrepreneurs that ticked none of the possible answers about feeling of least control. Explanations for this could be a quote. Namely, ‘when I can’t control it, it can’t bother me’ (E3). Second, multiple entrepreneurs have a feeling of least control in resource management, human resources. An example of low control: ‘at the last moment a employee doesn't come to work.’ (E8). Take this together with the high demand and this creates stress according this quote: ‘I am open from 10 till 10, and the customers needs a lot of attention, I find that stressful’. (E8). This indicates that high demand and low control about human resources lead to stress. Furthermore, an interesting result is that are no significant differences between the experienced entrepreneurs and the non-experienced entrepreneurs. Thus, it seems that there are little differences between experienced and non-experienced.

However, there are differences between high-tech and low-tech. Namely, two high-tech entrepreneurs mention applied patent/license against none of the low-tech entrepreneurs. Also, two of the low-tech entrepreneurs feel low control about ‘dealing with competition’. Furthermore, none of the high-tech entrepreneurs mentioned this one. Therefore, we assume that low-tech entrepreneurs feel less control about ‘dealing competition’ then high-tech entrepreneurs. Furthermore, this indicate that high-tech entrepreneurs feel lest control about ‘patent/license’.

Finally, six out of twelve entrepreneurs have a feeling least control about one of the marketing options. In this result there is a distinction, it seems that low-tech entrepreneurs have this feeling more often. This is based on low-tech entrepreneur ticked this four times against two times in the high-tech section. To summarize the differences in this section, it seems that there is a pattern that low-tech entrepreneurs feel low control about ‘applied patent/license’. Also, for the low-tech group there is a pattern between having a feeling of low control about marketing, there also seems to be a link with ‘dealing with competition’.

4.3.2 DECISION AUTHORITY

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is why I am an entrepreneur.’ (E3) or ‘I am fully free to make decisions but I discuss this with my wife, but I decide.’ About decision authority there are no significant differences among the groups. Therefore, this research assumes that all entrepreneurs without the franchise entrepreneurs are freer in decision-making. This is based on that non-franchise entrepreneurs feel more freedom then franchise entrepreneurs.

4.3.3 SKILL DISCRETION

The results are mixed for this one, around the half of the participants pointed out that they make use of their variety of skills. The other half mentioned they did not make use of their variety of skills. For example an example of high-tech entrepreneur: ‘yes, because as an entrepreneur you have to manage a lot of things. I have a programmer background, this make things easy because it is a software company. I am understand the practice at work floor’. Another example of high-tech entrepreneur: ‘I have more skills which are don't used in this job’. This indicates that there are not significance differences among the groups.

4.4.

S

The subsection social support can be distinguished into two parts in order to show the answers more precise. The components are support at work and support at home. First social support at work will be discussed. Finally, social support at home.

4.4.1

S

Before we start with results of this subject, there is made a distinction between entrepreneurs with employees and without employees. To start with, the results of entrepreneurs without employees will be shown. They pointed out that did not receive social support at work, quotes are: ‘I do not have social support, because I do not have employees.’ (E5) And ‘because I do not have employees, I do not receive social support.’ (E10). Furthermore they mention the influence of support: ‘I should like support from colleagues, to discuss if I do the right steps.’ (E5) and ‘It would be nice to discuss plans with other people, so I think it affects negative. It could help making plans better.’ (E10). To conclude, ‘It affects my work negative.’ (E5). Therefore, this research assumes that having no employee’s lead to no social support at work, they feel having no support affects their work negative. This seems logic because without employees you cannot get support from them. Furthermore, the participants with employees can be distinguished in to two groups. One group receives support from there colleagues. The other group feels no support. First the participants that feel support from there colleagues told:

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• ‘I get a lot of social support from my colleagues (employees).’ ‘They help me to find solutions that improve the firm. Also if it's busy they are cooperative to help.’ (E7)

• ‘A lot, we want to help each other.’ ‘Because of the support, we can deliver a better product/service.’ ‘This has a positive effect on my work.’ (E.v.F)

This indicates that they feel supported. This has a positive affect on them. It seems that there are no significant differences among the groups. Another interesting example is of an experienced high-tech entrepreneur: ‘I didn't receive a lot of social support in the past. I kept information for myself. During the cash flow issue, it was very hard to talk with other about these issues.’ ‘However, you need to communicate, because are willing to help you, also on the work floor now, I get a lot of social support, because we want to help customers together’ (E1). So this entrepreneur mentioned how important it is to be open to receive support because social support has a positive effect. On the other hand, there are also participants with employees that don’t feel supported, they told: ‘I don't feel supported.’ For example: ‘nobody can help my with administration.’ ‘This has a negative influence on my work’ (E2) and ‘no, I don't receive a lot of support from my colleague.’ (E8) the participant gave an example: ‘if I am on a holiday for one week, it's a mess when I come back. Thus, I must clear it up.’ ‘This creates stress.’ (E8). So when the participants don’t receive social support, this affects their job negative. Furthermore it’s worth mentioning that a participant running a franchise mentioned the supported received from the headquarters of the franchise, he told: ‘Furthermore, the headquarters of the franchisor also supports me when needed.’ (E7). To conclude, there are not major differences among the groups. Furthermore, the results indicate that if there is social support, this has a positive influence on the participants.

4.4.2 SOCIAL SUPPORT AT HOME

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When they did not receive social support at home, the results are mixed. There are not significance differences in this section.

4.5

O

In this subdivision the results on outcomes of stress will be displayed. In this subsection three outcomes will be shown. These are reaction on stress, influence on performance and influence on personal life. The results are being treated in the same sequence.

4.5.1 REACTION ON STRESS

The participants react in different ways on stress. There are three main reactions. Namely react ‘curtly’, for example: ‘I become curtly’ (E2). Reacting ‘stays calm’ for example: ‘I don’t react in other way’ (E3). And finally reacting ‘work harder’ for example: ‘I'm to go work even harder.’ (E9). In total, seven participants react ‘curtly’ on stress. It is worth mentioning that five out of this group are non-experienced entrepreneurs. Therefore, this research assumes that non-experienced entrepreneurs reacts different then experienced entrepreneurs. On the other hand, analyzing primarily the experienced entrepreneurs, results still are mixed. However, there are not major differences among high-tech and low-tech.

4.5.2

I

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4.5.3 INFLUENCE ON PERSONAL LIFE

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5.1

D

ISCUSSION

The aim of this study was twofold. First, its aim was review of existing literature regarding entrepreneurial stress. Second, it compares scholars’ views with those of practitioners in order to obtain deep insight into entrepreneurial stress. This is done through conducting an entrepreneurial grid, a storytelling exercise and a semi-structured interview with the participants. This study hypothesized that entrepreneurial stress is caused by a high demand in combination with a feeling of low control. Furthermore, this study expected that experienced entrepreneurs have less negative consequences then non-experienced entrepreneurs. The aim was to bring the different causes and consequences of entrepreneurial stress together. This led to the following research question: ‘How undergo entrepreneurs related stress and what are the consequences regarding performance?’ In addition, a sub question was formulated: ‘What is the influence of social support on coping with stress?’ In order to answer the main research question and the sub question, four different paragraphs were used. In the first paragraph the causes of entrepreneurial stress will be displayed. This paragraph also contains coping with entrepreneurial stress. In second paragraph, the consequences regarding performance will be discussed. In the third paragraph, the JDC-model will be discussed. The fourth paragraph is answering the sub question on social support. And finally, the conclusion, limitation and future research will be discussed.

5.1

E

5.1.1

T

This study investigated the causes of entrepreneurial stress. Based on the literature, this study expected that entrepreneurs receiving receive stress from ‘active jobs’ because these jobs cause more stress in general due to the negative implications of carrying high demands but a perceived inability to control one’s work environment (Pinto et al., 2014). The results indicate that stress, which is described by entrepreneurs, is derived from having a high demand in combination with low levels of control. Thus, the results are in line with the theoretical expectations. So, stress is derived from ‘active jobs’ (Pinto et al., 2014).

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the amount of entrepreneurial tasks is a cause of stress. Task during the day are for example doing administration, managing human resources, sorting mail or making telephone calls. Moreover, it is important how they cope with stress derived from work overload because coping with stress determines influence of stress on performance (Akkande, 1994). Entrepreneurs should focus on regaining control of activities (Nielsen et al., 1985). Therefore, activities that are linked to long-term goals should be given the highest priority (Nielsen et al., 1985). It is important to do the right tasks instead of doing tasks right (Nielsen et al., 1985). To conclude, coping with stress caused by the high variety of tasks successfully will improve performance.

In addition, this research wants to discover specific causes of entrepreneurial stress. This study expected that certain entrepreneurial activities cause more stress then others. For instance, this study expects that human resources cause entrepreneurial stress (Senyucel, 2009). The theory stated that firms have many resource problems in the 21st _{century such as finding skilled people for the right}

tasks, how to make sure people do what they should be doing and how to keep going when the times are tough (Senyucel, 2009). Additionally, entrepreneurs feel low control about human resources because it is difficulty for small business owners to recruit ‘good staff’ (Tansky et al., 2006). Furthermore, Entrepreneurs feel frustration and disappointment they experienced in their relationship owner-employees (Akande, 1994). This is an example of role conflict, which leads to decrease of control (Jamal, 1997). The results show that entrepreneurs getting stressed. Examples of entrepreneurs in this study are motivating employees, finding the right employees and labor disputes, cause. Thus, human resources are causing entrepreneurial stress.

Moreover, this study wants to discover specific activities that are creating entrepreneurial stress among high-tech entrepreneurs. This research expects that high-tech entrepreneurs receive stress from ‘responding to environment and society’ activities. High demand is caused by responding to rapidly changing markets and short life cycles (Benkenstein & Block, 1993). The results show that entrepreneurs from the high-tech firms perceive a high demand ‘responding to environment and society’, especially for ‘dealing with competition’. In addition, high-tech entrepreneurs mentioned the feeling of least control about ‘applied patent/license’. Thus, ‘responding to government and society’ causes entrepreneurial stress for high-tech entrepreneurs. This confirms the theory of Benkenstein & Block (1993). Besides, patenting is associated with an increase in the survival rate within a firm’s first five years (Helmers & Rogers, 2011). Coping successfully with this cause of stress, including obtaining a patent will enhance performance (Taylor et al., 2014).

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in the market. Key issues are obtaining customers and economic production (Scott & Bruce, 1987). Furthermore, startups fail when they do not have enough customers (Spears, 2015). The results show that there is strong demanding relation between ‘marketing’ and ‘organization building’ among the non-experienced entrepreneurs. However, this is not causing stress for non-experienced entrepreneurs because they the feel control on this activities. Reasons could be that the entrepreneurs have the right competencies (Storey, 1994). The entrepreneurs know exactly what the customers want and needs (Romano & Ratnatunga, 1995). Furthermore, the entrepreneurs have chosen the right strategy in order to grow successfully (Storey, 1994). To conclude, the entrepreneurs in this study feel that they stay in control. So, non-experienced entrepreneurs do not receive stress from the ‘organization building’ in combination with ‘marketing’. This study found multiple causes of stress; entrepreneurs could make uses of this knowledge avoiding high demand or improve control on the causes of stress.

5.1.2

C

This research has shown where stress is derived from, such as the high variety of tasks at the same time, human resources, responding to government and society and patenting. How entrepreneurs cope with stress will be discussed now. In general, people get more moody and bad-tempered through stress (Horton, 2007). This study expected that experienced entrepreneurs can better cope with stress (Fay & Sonnentag, 2002). The results show that non-experienced entrepreneurs react ‘curtly’. Non-experienced entrepreneurs cope less then Non-experienced entrepreneurs. However, the result among experienced entrepreneurs are mixed. Thus, this study cannot confirm this expectation fully. A reason could be the lack of experience amongst the experienced entrepreneurs. This is based on that experienced entrepreneurs in this study still have less then five years of entrepreneurial experienced. So, this suggests that they still are not experienced enough to cope with stress (Nobre, 2011). Another reason could be that some entrepreneurs do not like the entrepreneurial risk (Van Praag, Cramer, 2001). Entrepreneurs have to face a lot of risk and uncertainty in general (Van Praag et al., 2001). However, this is not measured. The causes of stress and coping with stress are discussed. Now it is interesting to describe the consequences regarding of stress, after coping with it. So, the relation between stress and performance is examined.

5.2

C

This paragraph contains two parts. First, in which way can entrepreneurs build their company in order to reach the ultimate stress level regarding performance. Second, how can entrepreneurs build their firm to avoid negative consequences of stress.

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shaped relationship between stress and performances. Based on the assumption that entrepreneurs need to be challenged to act alert and effortful in running a company (Rauch et al., 2007). The results indicate that some of the entrepreneurs perceive that stress affects performance positively, till up a certain point. However, not all entrepreneurs in this study agree with this. Other results are negative, neutral or positive. Therefore, confirming the expectations weakly, which is in line with Srivastava & Krishna (1986) who found limited empirical support on this. Reasons could lie on perceived amount stress of entrepreneurs that mentioned positive. Furthermore, the amount of stress perceived by entrepreneurs that mentioned negative influence could be too much. In addition, entrepreneurs who mentioned neutral can be explained in the same way. Other reasons could lie on personal characteristics of entrepreneurs, which have influence on the coping with stress and the attitude of entrepreneurs regarding stress (Van Praag & Cramer, 2001; Kuratko, 2016). In conclusion, this study found that stress affects performance. However, the turning point when stress is still unclear in this study, the point when stress becomes negative. This is a point of interest for future research, which will be discussed in the ‘future research’ paragraph.

Another special point regarding high-tech entrepreneurs is that they perceive strong demand for ‘responding to government and society’. Furthermore, the importance of patenting is known, which increase their survival chances (Helmers & Rogers, 2011). Moreover, the results indicate the feeling of low control about ‘patenting and licensing’. Most likely caused by the long and difficult administrative process to obtain a patent (Bottomley, 2014). Therefore, we recommended to high-tech entrepreneurs to improve the control to decrease demand. They should build their firm in a way to improve control on patenting. This study recommends high-tech entrepreneurs to build a network with a strong intensity with ties that can help with patenting (Watson, 2007). So in case of patenting, the tasks can be outsourced to a patent agent, who is specialized in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patenting (Slusky, 2007). Which decreases demand, which is the solution for the entrepreneurial stress derived from patenting. Furthermore, survival chances will improve. As mentioned before, stress is affecting the performance. However, the relation between entrepreneurial stress derived by patenting and performance is unclear. To conclude, the amount of stress will decrease due outsourcing. Furthermore, the performance will also increase due patenting outsourcing.

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outsourced tasks. Therefore, outsourced tasks will not lead to stress anymore (Pinto et al., 2014). However, entrepreneurs found it difficult to delegate tasks (Greene, 2011). This can be learned and it will take at least six months in general (Greene, 2011). On the other hand, another solution lies in improving the feeling of control, which will also help to decrease stress. This could be done to decrease the variety of tasks (Van der Doef & Maes, 1999). When the entrepreneur has fewer tasks, the focus on the tasks left will be higher on the tasks left, therefore the feeling of control will increase (Van der Doef et al., 1999). Naturally, it is important in case of outsourcing the job has to be done in a good way. Therefore, entrepreneurs have to build a network, which the entrepreneur can make use of in case of outsourcing (Watson, 2007). This could be friends and family, it is also necessary to have experts for specific tasks in the network (Zaheer, Gözübüyük & Milanov, 2010). This view is based on a positive relationship between networking and firm survival and growth (Watson, 2007). If survival chances increase, it seems logic that stress derived from ‘organizational/venture building’ decreases. Another solution might be increasing the decision authority (Van der Doef & Maes, 1999). However, in this study a significant amount of entrepreneurs are already fully free in decision-making. In case of franchise, it will be difficult to improve this, because decision-making lies at the headquarters (Rubin, 1978). To conclude, entrepreneurs should build their company with a strong network. Furthermore, it is important that entrepreneurs outsource some tasks, they cannot do everything on their own, and this will improve the performance of the tasks they still do because of the higher focus (Greene, 2011). Also, when tasks are outsourced it will decrease stress because demand is decreased. When the entrepreneur knows that the outsourced tasks are in good hands, this will improve the feeling of control, which will lead to a decrease in received stress. However, as mentioned before, this will be hard to learn (Greene, 2011). In order to avoid negative consequences of entrepreneurial stress that have negative influence on performance and personal life of the entrepreneurs there should be action taken to decrease demand and improve control on entrepreneurial activities.

5.3

JDC

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to analyze. As mentioned above, the JDC-model was a good starting point in this study. However, this research expect that it is better with a couple of additional parts we could obtain more information about entrepreneur stress and their consequences. Therefore, based on the literature, the expectation is that including all major entrepreneurial activities could help us investigating the cause of entrepreneurial stress (Gartner & Reynolds, 1966). Thus, this study includes an entrepreneurial grid in to investigate the causes of the stress. The results indicate that entrepreneurs have high variety of tasks, as mentions before (Van der Doef & Maes, 1999). Furthermore, we found different causes of stress. Therefore, when entrepreneurial stress is investigated, the categorized entrepreneurial activities need to be added (Gartner & Reynolds, 1966). This can help the society and entrepreneurs to avoid the negative consequences of stress to improve performance. Furthermore, based on the literature the expectation is that social support has influences on the consequences of entrepreneurial stress. The theory mentioned interesting things on this topic. Entrepreneurs can’t be successful alone (Aldrich & Zimmer, 1986). They need support from for example colleagues, friends and family to succeed. Moreover, social support could reduce the psychosocial impact of stress (Johnson, 1996). The results indicate that receiving social support has on moderating effect on the relationship between entrepreneurial stress and performance. This confirms the theory about social support (Johnson, 1996). Therefore, social support should be added to the JDC-model when investigating entrepreneurs.

5.4

S

As mentioned above, social support influences entrepreneurs. This research wants to discover how social support influences entrepreneurs. This study expects that social support have positive on the relationship between stress and performance. The expectation based on literature is that social support is helping entrepreneurs releasing the stress, because of realize of stress they can work better. In other words, it will have a positive influence on the performance. The results indicate multiple interesting things. Firstly, entrepreneurs receiving social support at work pointed out that this has positive effects on them. Secondly, a significant group of entrepreneurs receive support at home, this affect them in a positive way. For example through releasing stress and support them being an entrepreneur (with long workings hours). To be brief, comparing the expectations with the results of this subject, the conclusion is that social support has a positive influence on stress, in particular realize stress, which helps the entrepreneur performing better.

5.5

C

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same time, stress derived from human recourses and responding to government and society. Moreover, this study shows that the causes of stress could depending on whether the entrepreneur operating in the high-tech or low-tech industry. For example, high-tech entrepreneurs derive stress from patenting while this it not the case for low-tech entrepreneurs. In addition, experience has a positive influence on the reaction on coping with entrepreneurial stress. Coping with entrepreneurial stress determines the influence on performance. The answer on the research question is that entrepreneurs react positive, neutral or negative to stress. In case of a positive reaction, performance increases. In addition, neutral responses do not have influence on performance. And coping negative with entrepreneurial stress have negative influence on stress. Finally, social support has a moderating effect on stress. With help of social support entrepreneurs can handle a bit more stress. This is based on the effect of social support, namely it is acting as a buffer between entrepreneurial stress and negative consequences.

5.6

L

This thesis has its limitations. The first limitation is the limited sample size of twelve participants. Therefore, the outcomes of this study are not generalizable. The sample size needs to be increased to generalize the results, what fits more in a quantitative study. Instead, for the purpose of this study it is satisfactory. Additionally, it is important to mention that participant’s answers are based on their own experiences in their industry. Moreover, the interviewer could influence the entrepreneurs’ answers, ‘interviewer bias’. However, the interview guide is used to avoid this bias. Moreover, the scale of the research is a main limitation in this study. The entrepreneurs are acting in various industries. Furthermore, the entrepreneurs are selected through the snowballing technique. Therefore, the entrepreneurs are not random selected. The various entrepreneurs in this research are self-selected. It is worth mentioning that more entrepreneurs are approached with the question to participate in this research. The entrepreneurs that did not accept the invitation mentioned no interest for this research or having it to busy to participate. On the other hand, this study obtained various information from different angles. Therefore, this study has obtained in-depth information of stress issues of our participants. Moreover, this research collected specific information about high-tech entrepreneurs. Therefore, this could make specific recommendations for high-tech entrepreneurs. Also there is a distinction depended on experience. Which was important to discover if coping with stress can be learned over the years.

5.7

F

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