The entrepreneurial stress construct’s nomological validity is not well established as past studies have not delineated between entrepreneurial and employee stress. This study investigated several entrepreneurship-specific stressors positing their causal effect on perceived entrepreneurial stress (PES). It examined four directional hypotheses testing the causal, reverse, reciprocal relationships and moderation effects between stressors and PES. Further, it looked at the moderating impact of psychological capital. More than 300 entrepreneurs in emerging markets, namely India, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates, participated in this longitudinal study (Time 1 n = 325, Time 2 n = 310). The study adopted a cross-lagged competing model research design and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that entrepreneurship-specific personal, social, and occupational stressors cause PES. Further, the results also support the reverse causal effect of PES on stressors and a reciprocal relationship. The study advances resource-based theory to an entrepreneurial background, highlighting the role of intangible resource gaps in perceived entrepreneurial stress. The study concludes that entrepreneurship-specific intangible resources are useful to entrepreneurs at personal, social, and occupational levels. An actual or perceived loss of these resources may lead to perceived entrepreneurial stress. Furthermore, PES can interfere with the entrepreneurial capacity for innovation over time. Psychological capital can be an effective coping response as a moderator of perceived entrepreneurial stress’ adverse effects. This is one of the first studies that examines PES in an emerging market context, specific to entrepreneurial employment.

Purpose: Considerable evidence suggests that although they overlap, entrepreneurial and employee stressors have different causal antecedents and outcomes. However, limited empirical data explain how entrepreneurial traits, work and life drive entrepreneurial stressors and create entrepreneurial strain (commonly called entrepreneurial stress). Drawing on the challenge-hindrance framework (CHF), this paper hypothesises the causal effect of hindrance stressors on entrepreneurial strain. Furthermore, the study posits that entrepreneurial stressors and the resultant strain affect entrepreneurial behaviour.Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts an SEM-based machine-learning approach. Cross-lagged path models using SEM are used to analyse the data and train the machine-learning algorithm for cross-validation and generalisation. The sample consists of 415 entrepreneurs from three countries: India, Oman and United Arab Emirates. The entrepreneurs completed two self-report surveys over 12 months.Findings: The results show that hindrances to personal and professional goal achievement, demand-capability gap and contradictions between aspiration and reality, primarily due to unique resource constraints, characterise entrepreneurial stressors leading to entrepreneurial strain. The study further asserts that entrepreneurial strain is a significant predictor of entrepreneurial behaviour, significantly affecting innovativeness behaviour. Finally, the finding suggests that psychological capital moderates the adverse impact of stressors on entrepreneurial strain over time.Originality/value: This study contributes to the CHF by demonstrating the value of hindrance stressors in studying entrepreneurial strain and providing new insights into entrepreneurial coping. It argues that entrepreneurs cope effectively against hindrance stressors by utilising psychological capital. Furthermore, the study provides more evidence about the causal, reversed and reciprocal relationships between stressors and entrepreneurial strain through a cross-lagged analysis. This study is one of the first to evaluate the impact of entrepreneurial strain on entrepreneurial behaviour. Using a machine-learning approach is a new possibility for using machine learning for SEM and entrepreneurial strain.

The study explored the factors causing work-family imbalance among women administrators in higher education institutions in the UAE and how it affects their personal and organizational well-being. The research found that the existing literature doesn't give enough attention to the mismatch between women administrators' work and family goals. Furthermore, it provides little insight into the integration of work-family support systems. The study applied the Spillover theory to explain that women administrators face significant work-family imbalances that adversely impact their personal well-being and organizational effectiveness. The research also used Facilitation theory to examine how work-family support systems could reduce the adverse effects of work-family imbalances. The study surveyed 271 female administrators working in higher education institutions in the UAE. The findings, presented through structural equation modeling, showed that the demanding nature of research, teaching, and administrative work in higher education and women administrators' professional aspirations in socially demanding societies create work-life imbalance and work stress. The study proposed work-family support systems that could moderate the effect of work-family imbalances on work stress.

Purpose: Existing business model frameworks show weak conceptual unification, a paucity of measurement focus and limitations when applied in emerging economies. The study proposes a new business model framework – “Start-up Evaluation Calculus Using Research Evidence” (SECURE). The purpose of this study is to allow the measurement of the impact of business model design on start-up performance in emerging economies.Design/methodology/approach: Data collected from 713 entrepreneurs in select cities of India, Oman and the United Arab Emirates is analyzed through structural equation modeling. The study uses measurement and structural models to examine the validity of measures and additionally tests the five hypothesized relationships proposed in the study.Findings: The SECURE’s components comprising desirability, marketability, feasibility, scalability and viability showed validity and reliability. They synergistically demonstrated a statistically significant effect on a mix of financial and non-financial start-up performance outcomes. An alternative structural relationship that examined the impact of SECURE on only financial performance outcomes showed a weaker model fit. The findings indicate that a business model framework is useful when its ex ante measures show a positive causal effect on the desired performance outcomes.Practical implications: The scores obtained by the SECURE framework serve as an evaluative tool that informs entrepreneurs and start-ups on the readiness of their proposed, incubated or existing start-ups.Originality/value: Replacing subjective judgments with objective assessment criteria, SECURE is one of the first quantitative and performance-driven business model frameworks that contain measures from all functional domains of a start-up business. Start-ups can evaluate their business models against the SECURE model’s research-driven quantitative criteria and assess their impact on start-up performance.

Purpose: This paper explores the strategies adopted by purchasing firms to streamline relationships with suppliers amid the COVID-19 outbreak.Design/methodology/approach: This study employed a multiple case study method and conducted 42 semi-structured interviews with procurement managers from six firms in the United Arab Emirates.Findings: This study reveals six helpful strategies that purchasing firms can undertake to streamline supplier relationship management (SRM) in the wake of COVID-19. Precisely, purchasing firms are revising supply chain costs, planning orders in advance, sharing critical information with suppliers, planning major contingencies, developing a robust relationship with suppliers (e.g. partnership) and finally, improving the supplier's visibility.Research limitations/implications: This study comes with certain limitations. First, the results are based on a limited number of 42 interviewees. Hence, the study’s results cannot be generalized to a broader population. Second, the data were collected based on the cause and effect relationship.Practical implications: The findings of this study can help purchasing firms learn and use new appropriate strategies to manage the relationship with their suppliers in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak.Originality/value: This study contributes to SRM literature by unveiling six distinct strategies (such as revising supply chain costs, planning orders in advance, sharing critical information, etc.) that purchasing firms have employed to develop a robust and healthy working relationship with the suppliers in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In spite of the recognition that entrepreneurship and innovation are interlinked, very few studies have attempted to articulate this relationship. The aim of this article is to explain the nature of the relationship between entrepreneurship and innovation in large firms, arguing that entrepreneurship is an antecedent to innovation. The study employs a multidimensional entrepreneurial architecture (EA) framework for the first time and tests the effect of a battery of entrepreneurship measures on innovation output, which is reflected as degree and frequency of incremental and radical innovations. Adopting a quantitative approach, data were collected from 400 corporate firms in Oman representing various sectors of the economy. The EA dimensions reflected through entrepreneurial culture, entrepreneurial structure, entrepreneurial strategies and entrepreneurial leadership were tested through measurement and structural modelling. The results confirmed that entrepreneurship is a precursor to innovation. The EA framework, through its four dimensions, creates a collaborative and complimentary intensity that promotes innovation outputs, which may not be possible from the isolated effects of individual factors. The present study extends the extant literature, explaining how these entrepreneurship measures synergistically impact varying levels of innovation output. It has practical implications for managers in large firms involved in promoting innovation. They can transform the existing organisational architecture into an EA, by transplanting these entrepreneurship measures and creating a framework that promotes innovation.