Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/327086 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Citation: 
[Journal:] BRQ Business Research Quarterly [ISSN:] 2340-9444 [Volume:] 28 [Issue:] 3 [Year:] 2025 [Pages:] 581-599
Publisher: 
Sage Publishing, London
Abstract: 
This study advances research on the nexus of business insolvency and entrepreneurs' well-being. We broadly build upon the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR) and explore the severity of the impact of firm insolvency on subjective well-being, stress hormones, and physiological recovery. To test our hypotheses, we compared entrepreneurs operating in 51 businesses affected by insolvency with 51 entrepreneurs in a control group. We conducted our study in Germany, where legal regulations surrounding insolvency are relatively unfavorable for those affected. Our findings indicate that entrepreneurs facing insolvency experience lower psychological well-being, greater vital exhaustion, higher stress hormone levels, and, as revealed by supplementary analyses, poorer risk adjustment. Our study complemented entrepreneurs' self-reports with objective methods to examine entrepreneurial well-being in times of hardship from three perspectives: psychological, biological, and physiological. Although exploratory, our study provides relevant insights into potential repercussions of business failure.
Subjects: 
Well-being
entrepreneurs
firm insolvency
stress hormones
sleep
cognitive performance
JEL: 
I10
L26
G01
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc Logo
Document Type: 
Article

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