Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
8-2025
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph. D.
Department
Entrepreneurship
Degree Program
Entrepreneurship, PhD
Committee Chair
Lucas, Kristen
Committee Member
Maertz, Jr. Carl
Committee Member
Ahuja, Manu
Committee Member
Eddleston, Kimberly
Author's Keywords
dyadic research; entrepreneurial households; entrepreneurship; mixed methods; work-family interface; work-life balance
Abstract
Entrepreneurs operate at the intersection of work and family systems; yet, their experiences with work–life balance (WLB) remain underexplored—particularly in relational contexts. While existing research highlights the psychological demands of entrepreneurship, it often overlooks how family dynamics shape entrepreneurs’ experiences of balance, conflict, and boundary management. Guided by boundary theory, conservation of resources theory, and the goal attainment balance model, this dissertation investigates the question: How do entrepreneurs experience and make sense of their work-life balance? To answer this question, I designed a dyadic exploratory mixed-methods study. In Study 1, I conducted in-depth interviews with family business entrepreneurs and their partners (n = 21) to explore how balance is negotiated and enacted in daily life. In Study 2, I tested these insights through a dyadic survey of entrepreneurs, employees, and their partners (n = 603)—enabling comparative and relational analysis of detachment, conflict, support, and balance-related goals. This approach illuminated both self- and partner perspectives, revealing areas of discrepancy and alignment within entrepreneurial families. The study revealed unique work-life balance challenges experienced within entrepreneurial families. Entrepreneurs reported greater difficulty detaching from work than employees did. Further, gender dynamics influenced entrepreneurs’ household responsibilities and family support in traditional ways (i.e., reducing household burdens more for male entrepreneurs than female entrepreneurs). However, those influences did not impact their detachment from work or personal assessments of their work-life balance. While it has been assumed that entrepreneurs may be unaware of their absorption in their work, results disconfirmed that. Entrepreneurs and their partners were frequently in agreement about the frequency of conflict episodes and in agreement of their assessment of overall work-life balance. Moreover, entrepreneurs were more acutely aware of their inability to detach than their partners were. Results also revealed an agreement between self- and partner-reports of entrepreneurs dismissing the value of work-life balance as a worthy goal (to a much higher degree than employees and their partners). Then, although entrepreneurs’ work-life balance was not predicted by routine caregiving tasks and household responsibility, it was strongly predicted by engagement in personally meaningful family activities, which I named touchpoint activities. Finally, the analysis of WLB goals—and the absence of goals for many—challenged the assumption that entrepreneurs (and employees) approach balance with clearly articulated plans, uncovering distinct underlying schemas for how balance is defined and pursued. Together, these findings offer new theoretical and empirical insights into the lived realities of work-life balance in entrepreneurial households, highlighting both shared and diverging patterns in how entrepreneurs and their partners navigate the work-family interface.
Recommended Citation
Binhote, Juliana, "Beyond the individual: A dyadic mixed-methods study of work–life balance in entrepreneurial households." (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4604.
Retrieved from https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd/4604
