The Yin and Yang of entrepreneurship: Gender differences in the importance of communal and agentic characteristics for entrepreneurs' subjective well-being and performance

Abstract

Highlights • Women entrepreneurs achieve greater subjective well-being and new venture performance when they are high in creativity. • Men entrepreneurs achieve greater subjective well-being and new venture performance when they are high in teamwork. • Positive gender incongruities may prove advantageous for men and women entrepreneurs. Abstract This research examines gender differences in the relationships of entrepreneurs' agentic and communal personality characteristics with measures of subjective well-being and new venture performance. Results from a stratified national (USA) random sample of founding CEOs (N = 303) demonstrate the advantages of an agentic characteristic (creativity) for women and a communal characteristic (teamwork) for men, with regard to the respective abilities of such persons to achieve high levels of subjective well-being and new venture performance. These relative advantages for women and men were mediated by perceptions of person-work fit.