Entrepreneurial Passion and Work-life Balance: The Moderating Effect of Family Communication

Abstract

Objectives: This work-in-progress research paper aims to explore the relationship between the entrepreneurial passion (differentiating harmonious-and obsessive passion) and the work-life balance of the entrepreneur. We further aim to use the family communication patterns theory to investigate how the communication amongst family members (differentiating conversation-and conformity orientation) might have a strengthening or weakening effect on this relationship. Prior Work: Mental health issues affect many individuals all over the world. Given the overlap between the family-and business subsystem in a family business context, psychological tensions, issues or stress can easily transfer to the other subsystem, possibly resulting in significant implications. Previous research has shown that entrepreneurial passion (EP) might serve as a resource to deal with the stress from engaging in entrepreneurship. The conceptualization of EP by Vallerand et al. (2003) however differentiates harmonious-and obsessive passion. The latter type of passion however causes an internal pressure, which might impact the mental health or work-life balance of the entrepreneur. Given the heterogeneity of family businesses, this paper utilizes the family communication patterns theory, which-according to previous literature-considers conversation orientation (i.e. a type of communication in which openness and truthfulness is encouraged) conformity orientation (i.e. a type of communication where open conversations are discouraged and one is expected to adhere to certain traditional attitudes/beliefs). Based on prior work, we suggest that these types of family communication might affect the extent and manner in which entrepreneurial passion impacts the work-life balance of the entrepreneur. Approach: Data-collection will be conducted via a quantitative survey that will be sent out to the respondents via email, after which the PRECESS codes by Hayes (2017) will be used to test the moderated regression model. The target sample will consist of the CEOs of Belgian private family businesses, as they are in a unique position, the central person in the interrelation between firm and family. Results: This is a work-in-progress paper, which is currently in a data-gathering phase. Results therefore cannot be provided at this point in time. Implications and value: Mental health, psychological well-being and work-life balance are undeniably important issues that warrant more awareness and attention, in general and in entrepreneurship research specifically. This paper will aim to contribute to this by investigating how the entrepreneurial passion of an entrepreneur can have an impact on their work-life balance. This paper further contributes to research on family science theories and family firm literature as we argue that certain practices or configurations (e.g. communication patterns) can act as aggravating stressors or coping resources to strengthen or weaken the effect harmonious-and obsessive passion might have on the work-life balance of the entrepreneur.