Research Article Title:
Entrepreneurs can create a better tomorrow: The relationship between entrepreneurial grit, nonfinancial success, and societal impact
Authors: Marvin Kaes, Sebastian Kruse, Icon, Christoph, Maus, Carolin Krieweth & Malte Brettel
Published online: 26 Apr 2024
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/00472778.2024.2342839
ABSTRACT
Entrepreneurial grit, defined as passion and perseverance for long-term goals, has repeatedly been linked to higher venture performance. In this paper, we theorize that higher levels of grit may also lead to more nonfinancial success and stronger societal impact for entrepreneurs and that anxiety is a negative moderator in these relationships. We test our model among 1,398 German entrepreneurs in a broad range of industries and find support for our hypotheses. We contribute by uncovering grit as a novel determinant for the nonfinancial success measures of personal fulfillment and workplace relationships, as well as for societal impact, and by shedding light on the role of negative emotions as attenuators in these relationships.
This paper addresses three research gaps in the nascent literature on grit. First, while prior work has examined the relationship between grit and the financial performance of entrepreneurs’ ventures (Mooradian et al., Citation2016; Mueller et al., Citation2017), there has been a dearth of studies exploring the influence of grit on nonfinancial measures of entrepreneurial performance. However, since grit is associated with purposeful striving toward personally fulfilling goals (Duckworth et al., Citation2007), it appears plausible that grit may also be related to the achievement of entrepreneurs’ nonfinancial goals.
Second, prior work found that grit may result in higher venture performance (Mooradian et al., Citation2016; Mueller et al., Citation2017) but has not explored whether grit may enable entrepreneurs to achieve a greater societal impact. Societal impact refers to the positive effects that entrepreneurs have beyond the borders of their venture (Wach et al., Citation2017). However, even though many entrepreneurs strive for strong societal impact (Wach et al., Citation2017), few are successful since societal impact requires entrepreneurs to overcome numerous and unique challenges over prolonged periods of time (Eiselein & Dentchev, Citation2021). Because grit is associated with long-term perseverance (Duckworth & Quinn, Citation2009; Duckworth et al., Citation2007), grit may enable entrepreneurs to achieve societal impact.
Third, while previous work analyzed the direct relationships between grit and crucial outcomes for individuals, individual-level contingencies remain underexplored. Prior research has alluded to the possibility that the potency of grit may depend on negative emotions (Alhadabi & Karpinski, Citation2020; Datu, Citation2021; Datu & Restubog, Citation2020), such as anxiety. Anxiety is defined as the tendency to worry about things in general (K. Lee & Ashton, Citation2018) that can lead individuals to withdraw from situations (K. Lee & Ashton, Citation2018). Thus, we suspect that anxiety may weaken the positive effects of grit.
The purpose of this paper is to explore how individual differences in entrepreneurial grit relate to nonfinancial success and societal impact and how these relationships depend on entrepreneurs’ level of anxiety. We focus on personal fulfillment and workplace relationships as two key dimensions of nonfinancial success because these dimensions have been described as highly relevant nonfinancial goals by entrepreneurs (Wach et al., Citation2016). We test our research model using structural equation modeling and key informant data obtained from 1,398 German entrepreneurs across all industries collected between October and December 2021. Our findings indicate that entrepreneurial grit is positively related to the nonfinancial success factors of personal fulfillment and workplace relationships, as well as societal impact. Furthermore, anxiety negatively moderates both relationships.
Our study makes three contributions to the literature on grit. First, we suggest that grit can help entrepreneurs achieve higher personal fulfillment and better workplace relations. Thus, we contribute by indicating that the positive effects of grit extend beyond traditional measures of performance examined in prior work (for a review, see Christopoulou et al., Citation2018). Second, we suggest that entrepreneurs with higher levels of grit achieve stronger societal impact. This finding indicates that grit has positive effects that reach beyond entrepreneurs’ ventures and also answers research calls for a better understanding of which characteristics among entrepreneurs promote societal impact (Bacq & Eddleston, Citation2018; Bornmann, Citation2013; Rawhouser et al., Citation2019). Third, we suggest that anxiety among entrepreneurs may diminish the positive effects of grit. Our results thus highlight the understudied role of negative emotions as inhibitors of grit.
Our study also has implications for practitioners. Because grit is learnable (e.g., Alan et al., Citation2019), we encourage entrepreneurs to use interventions to strengthen their grit, and we encourage entrepreneurship educators and mentors to offer such interventions. Since existing interventions for promoting grit are targeted at students (e.g., Dunlosky et al., Citation2013; Shafiee Rad & Jafarpour, Citation2023), we emphasize the need to develop and evaluate grit interventions targeting entrepreneurs. Finally, our study suggests that entrepreneurs may use mechanisms that reduce anxiety, such as practicing mindfulness (Tang et al., Citation2007) or engaging in physical exercise (Craft & Perna, Citation2004).
