Partners in Life and Business: How Entrepreneurship Influences Marital Satisfaction

作者：Jipeng Fei, Min‐Hui Li · 发表于：Academy of Management Proceedings · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.5465/amproc.2025.14821abstract · 研究领域：Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences、Family Business Performance and Succession、Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

While the literature has offered valuable insights into the influence of family, especially spouses, on entrepreneurship, our knowledge of the reciprocal dynamics remain limited. We build on the work?life enrichment literature to develop hypotheses concerning the relationship between self-employment status and spouses’ marital satisfaction as well as the moderating effect of entrepreneurs’ gender on this relationship; these hypotheses are then investigated empirically. We conducted an archive study on the basis of a nationally representative household survey in China as well as a qualitative study on the basis of semistructured interviews with 6 pairs consisting of female entrepreneurs in self-employment and their spouses. Overall, our findings suggest that self-employment positively affects spouses’ martial satisfaction via both financial and housework contributions to the family; however, this effect is weaker among female entrepreneurs. Our study contributes to the research on family perceptions of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial well-being, and female entrepreneurship.