Techno-overload and well-being of French small business owners:: identifying the flipside of digital technologies

Roy Thurik; Alexandre Benzari; Christian Fisch; Jinia Mukerjee; Olivier Torrès

doi:10.1080/08985626.2023.2165713

Techno-overload and well-being of French small business owners: identifying the flipside of digital technologies

Roy Thurik^*
, Alexandre Benzari
, Christian Fisch
, Jinia Mukerjee
, Olivier Torrès

^*Corresponding author for this work

Applied Economics

Montpellier Business School
Université de Montpellier
University of Luxembourg

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

44 Citations (Scopus)

180 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Technostress is an important by-product of information and communication technologies (ICT). The technostress literature suggests focusing on specific dimensions of technostress, such as techno-overload, which describes when ICT usage demands to work faster and longer. However, only a few studies have dealt with the technostress of small business owners, let alone techno-overload. This is surprising since work overload in general has been identified as an important dimension of job stress for small business owners, and technostress has been identified as an important impediment for workers in general. The aim of the current study is to investigate the effect of techno-overload on well-being outcomes (as a composite measure consisting of physical well-being, mental well-being, sleep quality, burnout, and loneliness) using three data sets of French small business owners. Our results indicate a strong negative correlation between techno-overload and our composite measure of well-being for all three data sets. We interpret our findings for several different disciplines: information systems, small business owners and entrepreneurship, health and well-being, psychology and organization studies. Our data also allow for the identification of contextual effects–the COVID-19 pandemic–since one survey was conducted before, one at the start of, and one during the pandemic.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	136-161
Number of pages	26
Journal	Entrepreneurship and Regional Development
Volume	36
Issue number	1-2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2023.2165713
Publication status	Published - 2024

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The present research was supported by LabEx Entreprendre, University of Montpellier (ANR-10-Labex-11-01, Agence Nationale de la Recherche), by Observatoire Amarok and by the Research Excellence Initiative (REI 2015) of Erasmus University Rotterdam. The authors would like to thank the Confédération des PME (CPME), Groupe VYV and Garance Mutuelle for their collaborations in setting up the two surveys: Enquête CPME 2019 and Enquête Garance 2020. During the 2020 lockdown, the Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of the departments of Côte d’Or, Hérault, Morbihan, Saône and Loire, Pyrénées Orientales and the Chamber of Commerce and Handicraft (CMA) of the department of Vendée participated in setting up the Enquête Nationale COVID-19 2020.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

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Techno-overload and well-being of French small business owners identifying the flipside of digital technologiesFinal published version, 1.09 MBLicence: Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act

Cite this

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title = "Techno-overload and well-being of French small business owners:: identifying the flipside of digital technologies",

abstract = "Technostress is an important by-product of information and communication technologies (ICT). The technostress literature suggests focusing on specific dimensions of technostress, such as techno-overload, which describes when ICT usage demands to work faster and longer. However, only a few studies have dealt with the technostress of small business owners, let alone techno-overload. This is surprising since work overload in general has been identified as an important dimension of job stress for small business owners, and technostress has been identified as an important impediment for workers in general. The aim of the current study is to investigate the effect of techno-overload on well-being outcomes (as a composite measure consisting of physical well-being, mental well-being, sleep quality, burnout, and loneliness) using three data sets of French small business owners. Our results indicate a strong negative correlation between techno-overload and our composite measure of well-being for all three data sets. We interpret our findings for several different disciplines: information systems, small business owners and entrepreneurship, health and well-being, psychology and organization studies. Our data also allow for the identification of contextual effects{\textendash}the COVID-19 pandemic{\textendash}since one survey was conducted before, one at the start of, and one during the pandemic.",

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note = "Funding Information: The present research was supported by LabEx Entreprendre, University of Montpellier (ANR-10-Labex-11-01, Agence Nationale de la Recherche), by Observatoire Amarok and by the Research Excellence Initiative (REI 2015) of Erasmus University Rotterdam. The authors would like to thank the Conf{\'e}d{\'e}ration des PME (CPME), Groupe VYV and Garance Mutuelle for their collaborations in setting up the two surveys: Enqu{\^e}te CPME 2019 and Enqu{\^e}te Garance 2020. During the 2020 lockdown, the Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of the departments of C{\^o}te d{\textquoteright}Or, H{\'e}rault, Morbihan, Sa{\^o}ne and Loire, Pyr{\'e}n{\'e}es Orientales and the Chamber of Commerce and Handicraft (CMA) of the department of Vend{\'e}e participated in setting up the Enqu{\^e}te Nationale COVID-19 2020. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor \& Francis Group.",

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AU - Torrès, Olivier

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PY - 2024

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N2 - Technostress is an important by-product of information and communication technologies (ICT). The technostress literature suggests focusing on specific dimensions of technostress, such as techno-overload, which describes when ICT usage demands to work faster and longer. However, only a few studies have dealt with the technostress of small business owners, let alone techno-overload. This is surprising since work overload in general has been identified as an important dimension of job stress for small business owners, and technostress has been identified as an important impediment for workers in general. The aim of the current study is to investigate the effect of techno-overload on well-being outcomes (as a composite measure consisting of physical well-being, mental well-being, sleep quality, burnout, and loneliness) using three data sets of French small business owners. Our results indicate a strong negative correlation between techno-overload and our composite measure of well-being for all three data sets. We interpret our findings for several different disciplines: information systems, small business owners and entrepreneurship, health and well-being, psychology and organization studies. Our data also allow for the identification of contextual effects–the COVID-19 pandemic–since one survey was conducted before, one at the start of, and one during the pandemic.

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Techno-overload and well-being of French small business owners: identifying the flipside of digital technologies

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