Entrepreneurship is important in economic growth and development. This study explores the likelihood that societal-level well-being and country-level self-expression values positively influence individual entrepreneurship across countries. Self-expression values mediate and reinforce the effect of societal well-being on entrepreneurship. Well-being is not simply an individual-level expression of positive emotions or an individual’s accumulated human capital alone. It is also a country’s stock of psychological as well as social resource and a macrolevel culture-specific emotion supporting entrepreneurship. This study provides a multidimensional approach to exploring the effects of societal well-being and country-level self-expression values on entrepreneurship. The proposed conceptual model uses three theoretical propositions to delineate an indirect effect of societal well-being mediated through country-level self-expression values. The study also compiles measures of societal well-being terms from secondary data sets for use in cross-country comparative empirical research into entrepreneurship.
AbreuM.OnerO.BrouwerA.LeeuwenE. (2019). Well-being effects of self-employment: A spatial inquiry. Journal of Business Venturing, 34, 589–607.
2.
AlloyL. B.AbramsonL. Y. (1979). Judgement of contingency in depressed and non-depressed students: Sadder but wiser?Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 108, 441–485.
3.
AnokhinS.SchulzeW. S. (2009). Entrepreneurship, innovation, and corruption. Journal of Business Venturing, 24, 465–476.
4.
AutioE.PathakS.WennbergK. (2013). Consequence of cultural practices for entrepreneurial behaviors. Journal of International Business Studies, 44, 334–362.
5.
BaronR. A. (2004). The cognitive perspective: A valuable tool for answering entrepreneurship’s “why” questions. Journal of Business Venturing, 19, 221–240.
6.
BaronR. A. (2008). The role of affect in the entrepreneurial process. Academy of Management Review, 33, 328–340.
7.
BaronR. A.FranklinR. J.HmieleskiK. M. (2016). Why entrepreneurs often experience low, not high, levels of stress: The joint effects of selection and psychological capital. Journal of Management, 42, 742–776.
BaumJ. R.LockeE. A. (2004). The relationship of entrepreneurial traits, skill and motivation to subsequent venture growth. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 587–598.
10.
BeckerG. S. (1964). Human capital. Columbia University Press.
11.
BharadwajS.MenonA. (2000). Making innovation happen in organizations: Individual creativity mechanisms, organizational creativity mechanisms or both?Journal of Product Innovation Management, 17, 424–434.
12.
BinderM.CoadA. (2013). Life satisfaction and self-employment: A matching approach. Small Business Economic, 40, 1009–1033.
13.
BirleyS.WestheadP. (1994). A taxonomy of business start-up reasons and their impact on firm growth and size. Journal of Business Venturing, 9, 7–31.
14.
BlockJ.KoellingerP. (2009). I can’t get no satisfaction: Necessity entrepreneurship and procedural utility. International Review for Social Sciences, 62, 191–209.
BurtR. S. (1992). Structural holes: The social structure of competition. Harvard University Press.
17.
CarruthersC. P.HoodC. D. (2004). The power of the positive: Leisure and well-being. Therapeutic Recreation Journal, 38, 225–245.
18.
CarverC. S.ScheierM. E. (2001). Optimism, pessimism, and self-regulation. In ChungE.C. (Ed.), Optimism and pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice (pp. 31–51). American Psychological Association.
19.
ClarkA. E.OswaldA. J. (1994). Unhappiness and unemployment. The Economic Journal, 104, 648–659.
20.
CooperA. C.ArtzK. W. (1995). Determinants of satisfaction for entrepreneurs. Journal of Business Venturing, 10, 439–457.
21.
DavidssonP. (1989). Entrepreneurship and after? A study of growth willingness in small firms. Journal of Business Venturing, 4, 211–226.
22.
DeciE. L.RyanR. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227–268.
DienerE. (1994). Assessing subjective well-being: Progress and opportunities. Social Indicators Research, 31, 103–157.
25.
DienerE. (2000). Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. American Psychologist, 55, 34–43.
26.
DienerE. (2009). Assessing well-being: The collected works of Ed Diener. Springer.
27.
DienerE.DienerM. (2009). Cross-cultural correlates of life satisfaction and self-esteem. In DienerE. (Ed.), Culture and well-being (pp. 71–91). Springer.
28.
DienerE.DienerM.DienerC. (1995). Factors predicting the subjective well-being of nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 851–864.
29.
DienerE.EmmonsR. A.LarsenR. J.GriffinS. (1985). The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75.
30.
DienerE.LucasR. E. (1999). Well-being: Foundations of hedonic psychology. Royal Sage Foundations.
31.
DienerE.OishiS.LucasR. E. (2003). Personality, culture, and subjective well-being: Emotional and cognitive evaluations of life. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 403–425.
32.
DienerE.ScollonC.LucasR. (2009). The evolving concept of subjective well-being: The multifaceted nature of happiness. In DienerE. (Ed.), Assessing well-being: The collected works of Ed Diener (pp. 67–100). Springer.
33.
DienerE.SeligmanM. (2004). Beyond money: Toward an economy of well-being. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 5, 1–31.
34.
DienerE.SuhE. M. (2003). National differences in subjective well-being. In KahnemanD.DienerE.SchwarzN. (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology. Russell Sage Foundation.
35.
DuttonJ. E. (1992). The making of organizational opportunities: An interpretive pathway to organizational change. Research in Organizational Behavior, 15, 195–226.
36.
EidM.DienerE. (2001). Norms for experiencing emotions in different cultures: Inter- and-intranational differences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 869–885.
37.
EriksonE. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle: Selected papers. Psychological Issues, 1, 1–171.
38.
EstrinS.KorostelevaJ.MickiewiczT. (2013). Which institutions encourage entrepreneurial growth aspirations?Journal of Business Venturing, 28, 564–580.
39.
FredricksonB. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions. Review of General Psychology, 2, 300–319.
40.
FredricksonB. L. (2004). The broaden and build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 359, 1367–1377.
41.
FreytagA.ThurikR. (2010). Introducing entrepreneurship and culture: Entrepreneurship and culture. Springer.
GopinathN.MitraJ. (2017). Entrepreneurship and well-being: Toward developing a novel conceptual framework for entrepreneurial sustainability in organizations. Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, 3, 62–70.
45.
GrossJ.BarrettL. (2011). Emotion generation and emotion regulation: One or two depends on your point of view. Emotion Review, 3, 8–16.
46.
HarréR. (1986). The social construction of emotions. Wiley Blackwell.
47.
HechavarriaD. M.ReynoldsP. D. (2009). Cultural norms and business start-ups: The impact of national values on opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 5, 417–437.
48.
HelliwellJ. F.Barrington-LeighC. (2010). Measuring and understanding subjective well-being. Canadian Journal of Economics, 43, 729–753.
49.
HesselsJ.ArampatziE.van der ZwanP.BurgerM. (2018). Life satisfaction and self-employment in different types of occupations. Journal of Applied Economics Letters, 25, 734–740.
50.
HmieleskiK.ShepherdD. (2019). The Yin and Yang of entrepreneurship: Gender differences in the importance of communal and agentic characteristics for entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being and performance. Journal of Business Venturing, 34, 709–730.
51.
InglehartR. (2006). Mapping global values. International Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology, 5, 115–136.
52.
InglehartR.BakerW. (2000). Modernization, cultural change and the persistence of traditional values. American Sociological Review, 65, 19–51.
53.
InglehartR.KlingemannH. D. (2000). Genes, culture, democracy, and happiness. In DienerE.SuhM. (Eds.), Culture and subjective well-being. MIT Press.
54.
InglehartR.OysermanD. (2004). Individualism, autonomy, self-expression and human development. In VinkenH.SoetersJ.EsterP. (Eds.), Comparing cultures, dimensions of culture in a comparative perspective (pp. 74–96). Brill.
55.
InglehartR.WelzelC. (2005). Modernization, cultural change and democracy. Cambridge University Press.
56.
JungC. G. (1933.). Modern man in search of his soul. Kegan Paul.
57.
KahnemanD.DienerE.SchwarzN. (Eds.). (1999). Well-being: Foundations of hedonic psychology. Russell Sage Foundation.
58.
KahnemanD.KruegerA. B.SchkadeD. A.SchwarzN.StoneA. A. (2004). A survey method of characterizing daily life experience: The day reconstruction method. Science, 306, 1776–1780.
59.
KaraA.PetrescuM. (2018). Self-employment and its relationship to subjective well-being. International Review of Entrepreneurship, 16, 115–140.
60.
KaticI.IngramP. (2017). Income inequality and subjective well-being: Toward an understanding of the relationship and its mechanisms. Business & Society, 57, 1010–1044.
61.
KautonenT.PalmroosJ. (2010). The impact of necessity-based start-up on subsequent entrepreneurial satisfaction. International Entrepreneurship and Manage-ment Journal, 6, 285–300.
62.
KedmenecI.StrašekS. (2017). Are some cultures more favourable for social entrepreneurship than others?Economic Research/Ekonomska istraživanja, 30, 1461–1476.
KiblerE.WincentJ.KautonenT.CacciottiG.ObschonkaM. (2019). Can prosocial motivation harm entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being?Journal of Business Venturing, 34, 608–624.
65.
KimP. H.LiM. (2014). Injecting demand through spillovers: Foreign direct investment, domestic socio-political conditions, and host-country entrepreneurial activity. Journal of Business Venturing, 29, 210–231.
66.
KruegerN.LiñánF.NabiG. (2013). Cultural values and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship & Region Development, 25, 703–707.
67.
LarssonJ. P.ThulinP. (2019). Independent by necessity? The life satisfaction of necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs in 70 countries. Small Business Economics, 53, 921–934. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-0110-9
68.
LeeS. M.TrimiS. (2018). Innovations for creating a smart future. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 3, 1–8.
69.
LinN.DuminM. (1986). Access to occupations through social ties. Social Networks, 8, 365–385.
70.
LinN.EnselW. M.VaughnJ. C. (1981). Social resources and strength of ties: Structural factors in occupational status attainment. American Sociological Review, 46, 393–405.
71.
LouriG. (1977). A dynamic theory of racial income differences. In WlllaceP. A.LaMondeA. M. (Eds.), Women, minorities, and employment discrimination (pp. 153–188). Lexington Books.
72.
LyubomirskyS.KingL.DienerE. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–855.
73.
ManolovaT. S.BrushC. G.EdelmanL. F.ShaverK. G. (2012). One size does not fit all: Entrepreneurial expectancies and growth intentions of U.S. women and men nascent entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 247-, 27.
74.
MarsdenP. V.HurlbertJ. S. (1988). Social resources and mobility outcomes: A replication and extension. Social Forces, 66, 1038–1059.
75.
MaslowA. H. (1954). Motivation and personality. Harper and Row.
76.
MaslowA. H. (1968). Toward a psychology of being. Reinhold Publishing.
77.
McEwenB. S.StellarE. (1993). Stress and the individual mechanisms leading to disease. Archives of Internal Medicine, 153, 2093–2101.
78.
McMullenJ. S.ShepherdD. A. (2006). Entrepreneurial action and the role of uncertainty in the theory of the entrepreneur. Academy of Management Review, 31, 132–152.
79.
MeekW. R.PachecoD. F.YorkJ. G. (2010). The impact of social norms on entrepreneurial action: Evidence from the environmental entrepreneurship context. Journal of Business Venturing, 25, 493–509.
80.
MillerT. L.GrimesM. G.McMullenJ. S.VogusT. J. (2012). Venturing for others with heart and head: How compassion encourages social entrepreneurship. Academy of Management Review, 37, 616–640.
81.
MullinsJ. W.ForlaniD. (2005). Missing the boat or sinking the boat: A study of new venture decision making. Journal of Business Venturing, 20, 47–69.
MusikansiL. (2014). Happiness in public policy. Journal of Social Change, 6, 55–85.
84.
NambisanS.BaronR. A. (2013). Entrepreneurship in innovation ecosystems: Entrepreneurs’ self-regulatory processes and their implications for new venture success. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 37, 1071–1097.
85.
NaudeW.AmorosJ.CristiO. (2014). “Surfeiting, the appetite may sicken”: Entrepreneurship and happiness. Small Business Economics, 42, 523–540.
86.
ÖrtqvistD.WincentJ. (2010). Role stress, exhaustion, and satisfaction: A cross-lagged structural equation modeling approach supporting Hobfoll’s loss spirals. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40, 1357–1384.
87.
ParasuramanS.SimmersC. A. (2001). Type of employment, work-family conflict and well-being: A comparative study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22, 551–568.
88.
PatelP. C.WolfeM. T.WilliamsT. A. (2018). Self-employment and allostatic load. Journal of Business Venturing, 34, 731–751.
89.
PatzeltH.ShepherdD. A. (2011). Negative emotions of an entrepreneurial career: Self-employment and regulatory coping behaviors. Journal of Business Venturing, 26, 226–238.
90.
RajapathiranaR. P.HuiY. (2018). Relationship between innovation capability, innovation type, and firm performance. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 3, 44–55.
91.
RogersC. R. (1962). The interpersonal relationship. Harvard Education Review, 32, 416–429.
92.
RyanR. M.DeciE. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78.
93.
RyanR. M.DeciE. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 141–166.
94.
RyffC. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 1069.
95.
RyffC. D. (2019). Entrepreneurship and eudaimonic well-being: Five venue for new sciences. Journal of Business Venturing, 34, 646–663.
96.
RyffC. D.KeyesC. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 718–727.
97.
RyffC. D.SingerB. H. (2013). Know thyself and become what you are: A eudaimonic approach to psychological well-being. In Delle FaveA. (Ed.), The exploration of happiness: Present and future perspectives (pp. 97–116.). Springer.
98.
Sánchez-GarcíaJ. C.Vargas-MorúaG.Hernández SánchezB. R. (2018). Entrepreneurs’ well-being: A systematic literature and bibliometric review. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, Article 1696.
99.
SchultzT. W. (1961). Investment in human capital. The American Economic Review, 51, 1–17.
100.
SeväI.LarssonD.StrandhM. (2016). The prevalence, characteristics and well-being of “necessity” self-employed and “latent” entrepreneurs: Findings from Sweden. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 28, 58–77.
101.
ShepherdD. A.CovinJ. G.KuratkoD. F. (2009). Project failure from corporate entrepreneurship: Managing the grief process. Journal of Business Venturing, 24, 588–560.
102.
ShepherdD. A.PatzeltH. (2018). Emotion and entrepreneurial cognition. In ShepherdD. A.PatzeltH. (Eds.), Entrepreneurial cognition (pp. 201–258). Palgrave Macmillan.
103.
ShirN. (2015). Entrepreneurial well-being: The payoff structure of business creation. Stockholm School of Economics.
104.
ShirN.NikolaevB.WincentJ. (2019). Entrepreneurship and well-being: The role of psychological autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Journal of Business Venturing, 34, 589–607.
105.
SpectorP. (1998). A control theory of the job stress process. In CooperC. L. (Ed.), Theories of organizational stress (pp. 153–169). Oxford University Press.
106.
SpectorP. E. (1997). Job satisfaction: Application, assessment, cause, and consequences. Sage.
107.
SteelP.TarasV.UggerslevK.BoscoF. (2018). The happy culture: A theoretical meta-analytic, and empirical review of the relationship between culture and wealth and subjective well-being. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 22, 128–169.
108.
StenholmP.AcsZ. J.WuebkerR. (2013). Exploring country-level institutional arrangements on the rate and type of entrepreneurial activity. Journal of Business Venturing, 28, 176–193.
109.
StephanU. (2018). Entrepreneurs’ mental health and well-being: A review and research agenda. Academy of Management Perspectives, 32, 290–322.
110.
StephanU.PathakS. (2016). Beyond cultural values? Cultural leadership ideals and entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 31, 505–523.
111.
StephanU.RoeslerU. (2010). Health of entrepreneurs versus employees in a national representative sample. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 83, 717–738.
112.
StephanU.UhlanerL. M.StrideC. (2014). Institutions and social entrepreneurship: The role of institutional voids, institutional support, and institutional configurations. Journal of International Business Studies, 46, 308–331.
113.
SuhE.DienerE.OishiS.TriandisH. C. (1998). The shifting basis of life satisfaction judgments across cultures: Emotions versus norms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 482–493.
114.
SweetlandS. R. (1996). Human capital theory: Foundations of field of inquiry. Review of Educational Research, 66, 341–359.
115.
TayL.KuykendallL.DienerE. (2015). Satisfaction and happiness: The bright side of quality of life. In GlatzerW.CamfieldL.MøllerV.RojasM. (Eds.), Global handbook of quality of life (pp. 839–853), Springer.
116.
ThaiM. T. T.TurkinaE. (2014). Macro-level determinants of formal entrepreneurship versus informal entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 29, 490–510.
117.
UyM. A.FooM. D.SongZ. (2013). Joint effects of prior start-up experience and coping strategies on entrepreneurs’ psychological well-being. Journal of Business Venturing, 28, 583–597.
118.
ValliereD. (2014). Culture, values and entrepreneurial motivation in Bhutan. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, 8, 126–146.
119.
Van RyzinG. G.GrossmanS.DiPadova-StocksL.BergrudE. (2009). Portrait of the social entrepreneur: Statistical evidence from a U.S. panel. International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 20, 129–140.
120.
VeenhovenR. (1993). Happiness in nations. Risbo.
121.
WardT. B. (2004). Cognition, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 19, 173–188.
122.
WatermanA. S. (1993). Two conceptions of happiness: Contrasts of personal expressiveness (eudaimonia) and hedonic enjoyment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 678–691.
123.
WatermanA. S.SchwartzS. J.ZamboangaB. L.RavertR. D.WilliamsM. K.Bede AgochaV.Brent DonnellanM. (2010). The Questionnaire for Eudaimonic Well-being: Psychometric properties, demographic comparisons, and evidence of validity. Journal of Positive Psychology, 5, 41–61.
124.
WiklundJ.NikolaevB.ShirN.FooM.BradleyS. (2019). Entrepreneurship and well-being: Past, present, and future. Journal of Business Venturing, 34, 579–588.
YeD.NgY.LianY. (2015). Culture and happiness. Social Indicators Research, 123, 519–547.
127.
ZacharakisA. L.ShepherdD. A.CoombsJ. E. (2003). The development of venture-capital-backed internet companies: An ecosystem perspective. Journal of Business Venturing, 18, 217–231.
