Turbulence and adaptations to the coronavirus crisis: resources, coping and effects on stress and wellbeing of entrepreneurs

The COVID-19 crisis has substantial consequences for entrepreneurs. Specifically, our model assumes that the task environment turbulence – changing employment rates within industries and geographic locations – forces entrepreneurs to adapt and change their work organization which, in turn, increases their stress and reduces their wellbeing. In building on the conservation of resource theory, we posit that resources will have a positive effect on stress and wellbeing, whereas coping strategies will have either positive or negative effects depending on the type of strategy used. We tested our model on a sample of 496 entrepreneurs. Our results demonstrate the strong effect of environmental turbulence on changes in work organization and, ultimately, the stress and wellbeing of entrepreneurs. Avoidance-oriented and task-oriented coping strategies are both important in reducing stress and improving wellbeing, while emotion-oriented coping has a negative impact on stress. Having access to relational resources reduces stress and improves wellbeing, and access to organizational resources reduces stress and positively moderates the negative effect of stress on wellbeing.