Title: The impact of technostress on small business owners burnout: the mediating role of strain

Authors: Alexandre Benzari; Anis Khedhaouria; Olivier Torrès; Alain Cucchi

Addresses: LabEx Entreprendre, Montpellier Business School, 2300, Avenue des Moulins, 34080, Montpellier, Cedex 4, France ' LabEx Entreprendre, Montpellier Business School, 2300, Avenue des Moulins, 34080, Montpellier, Cedex 4, France ' LabEx Entreprendre, Montpellier Research in Management (MRM), Montpellier Business School, Université de Montpellier (Montpellier Management), Espace Richter 208, Rue Vendémiaire-2, 34000, Montpellier, 34960 Cedex, France ' Laboratoire Centre d'Économie et de Management de l'Océan Indien (CEMOI), Université de la Réunion, 24, Avenue de la Victoire, CS 92003, 97744 Saint Denis Cedex 9, France

Abstract: A revised stress-strain-outcome (SSO) model of burnout was empirically tested with a large sample of 239 small business owners. Our model differentiates the consequences of strain into short-term and long-term consequences to study the mechanisms through which technostress (technostressors) affects strain (short-term consequence) and job burnout as an outcome (long-term consequence). Our results revealed three technostressors (techno-induced work overload, techno-induced job insecurity, and techno-induced role ambiguity) to be positively and directly associated with small business owners' strain. There was no direct effect of technostressors on burnout. Considering the short-term and long-term consequences, strain fully mediated the relationship between technostressors and burnout. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Keywords: small business owners; technostress; technostressors; strain; burnout; information and communication technologies; ICTs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2024.139621

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2024 Vol.52 No.4, pp.473 - 504

Received: 05 Dec 2020
Accepted: 11 Apr 2022
Published online: 05 Jul 2024 *

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