On the costs of digital entrepreneurship: Role conflict, stress, and venture performance in digital platform-based ecosystems

Digital platforms and associated ecosystems provide a promising new environment for entrepreneurship. While the benefits to entrepreneurs (and new ventures) associated with membership in these ecosystems are well understood (e.g., market access), the associated costs or “downsides” are yet to be studied. Digital ecosystems require entrepreneurs to simultaneously fill two roles: ecosystem member and new venture leader. Often, these roles are incompatible, thus generating role conflict and high levels of stress. We predict that the stress generated by role conflict would reduce venture performance by interfering with entrepreneurs' performance of key tasks in digital ecosystems. We further predict that the positive relationship between role conflict and stress is moderated by ecosystem openness and that the negative relationship between stress and venture performance is moderated by entrepreneurs' self-control. Empirical results offer broad support for these predictions, provide fresh insights into the costs of digital entrepreneurship, and indicate potential mitigating skills.