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From entrepreneurial hustle to thriving at work: the role of prior startup experience and environmental uncertainty
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DOI：10.1007/s11187-026-01266-9.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
While entrepreneurship significantly impacts individuals’ well-being, research on thriving at work—the joint experience of vitality and learning—remains predominantly employee-centric. This study addresses this gap by examining the behavioral and contextual foundations of founders’ thriving at work. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) and Person-Environment (P-E) Fit theories, we identify entrepreneurial hustle—characterized by urgent, unorthodox action under uncertainty—as a key antecedent of founders’ thriving at work. We further theorize how this relationship is moderated by the interplay between a founder’s prior startup experience and environmental uncertainty. Analyzing survey data from 105 startup founders in collaboration with Belgium’s largest accelerator, we find that the relationship between hustle and thriving depends on person-environment fit: entrepreneurial hustle enhances thriving at work for inexperienced founders in low-uncertainty environments, whereas experienced founders thrive through hustle in high-uncertainty environments. Our study contributes to the entrepreneurship and thriving-at-work literatures, and provides valuable practical insights for founders and their supporters. When does entrepreneurial hustle help founders thrive? Our study shows that the benefits of taking urgent and unorthodox action depend on the fit between founders’ prior startup experience and their environment. By surveying 105 startup founders, we found that inexperienced founders thrive when hustling in low-uncertainty environments, whereas experienced founders show higher thriving through hustle in high-uncertainty environments. Thus, the principal implication of this study is that startup founders should be aware of how their experience interacts with market uncertainty, aiming to align these factors with their behavioral investments to sustain well-being and prevent burnout.
Keywords:
Entrepreneurial hustle
Eudaimonic well-being
Thriving at work
Conservation of resources theory
Person-environment fit
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