Background: Considering the importance of entrepreneurship and the impact of burnout on workers' health, this study aims to explore the presence of burnout in entrepreneurs and the interaction of hardy personality (HP) in this process.
Method: The sample included 255 Spanish entrepreneurs. Occupational factors, working hours, labour immersion, HP, burnout syndrome (i.e. Emotional exhaustion, Depersonalization and Lack of accomplishment) and burnout consequences were assessed.
Results: Descriptive analysis showed that entrepreneurs had low levels of occupational factors, burnout syndrome and consequences. Hierarchical regression exploratory results indicated that working hours, labour immersion, and Emotional exhaustion were the most relevant predictors of the consequences. Besides, mediation models with PROCESS macro (v.3.0) highlighted the indirect effect of occupational factors and showed that emotional exhaustion was the only component of burnout that mediated in between the predictors and the consequences. As well, HP moderated the relationship between occupational factors and emotional exhaustion.
Conclusions: Occupational factors are the main predictor of burnout in entrepreneurs and HP could prevent their effect on Emotional exhaustion. The results suggest the importance of training to promote HP for better health and performance of entrepreneurs.
Keywords: Organizational psychology; burnout; coping strategies; performance motives; work behavior.