What keeps them going? Socio-cognitive entrepreneurial career continuance

Previous studies suggest that individual career satisfiers such as earning wealth and developing relationships with employees are important drivers of intentions to start an entrepreneurial career. However, less is known about their effects on broader, downstream career decisions such as intentions to remain in entrepreneurial careers. Based on data from 228 business owners, we find that employee relationship career satisfiers drive intentions to remain in entrepreneurship while status-based career satisfiers do not. Further, our study reveals that the cognitive relationships between career satisfiers and career continuance intentions are socially situated such that emotional support from family changes these relationships, especially when examined between owners of family and nonfamily businesses.