High workload and investor conflicts: Short-term and sustained effects on entrepreneurial resilience

Psychological resilience is important in entrepreneurship, yet little is known about how short-term and sustained exposure to entrepreneurial stressors influences resilience. Drawing on the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, we examine whether high workload (challenge stressor) and conflicts with investors (hindrance stressor) differentially shape entrepreneurs' resilience, and whether psychological detachment moderates these associations in the short term. Using survey data from 270 entrepreneurs collected over one year, we found that, in the short term, both stressors are associated with lower resilience via perceived stress, with psychological detachment moderating these effects. Over sustained exposure, high workload relates positively to resilience, whereas conflicts with investors relates negatively. We advance entrepreneurship research by clarifying how challenge and hindrance stressors strengthen or weaken resilience over time, and by identifying psychological detachment as a short-term coping mechanism. Practically, entrepreneurs can benefit from detachment practices under acute stress, while sustained workload may yield unexpected benefits for resilience.