Opportunity Entrepreneurship and Subjective Wellbeing: The Role of Psychological Functioning. Does individualism change this relationship?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to show how autonomy, competence and meaningful work serve as mechanisms through which opportunity entrepreneurship leads to higher levels of wellbeing, and how this relationship may be altered by the country's level of individualism. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data for 37 countries and 14,514 individuals that are active in early stage entrepreneurship are used to investigate the relationship between opportunity entrepreneurship and wellbeing. To account for the nested nature of our data, we use a multilevel model to assess how factors of autonomy and competence as components of self-determination and meaningful work as a component of decent work mediate the opportunity entrepreneurship and wellbeing relationship. We also test the moderating effects of individualism cultural dimension at the country level on the relationship between opportunity entrepreneurship and wellbeing.