Job satisfaction and heterogeneity of entrepreneurship nexus

Purpose This study aims to contribute to the field by studying differences in job satisfaction among different categories of entrepreneurs, namely: job creators (employer entrepreneurs or self-employed with employees), solo self-employed individuals, hybrid entrepreneurs and dependent self-employed. Design/methodology/approach The empirical settings utilize cross-country data from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU LFS), including 35 countries and information on 330,755 full-time employees and the studied types of entrepreneurial occupations. The results are based on the employment of multivariate ordered logistic regression models. Findings This study finds that, on average, the highest levels of job satisfaction are among job creators, followed by solo self-employed individuals. Compared with wage employed, on average, lower levels of job satisfaction were reported by hybrid entrepreneurs and dependent self-employed individuals who had the lowest levels of job satisfaction. The latter is more likely to be exposed to economically vulnerable conditions as they operate within unclear regulation frameworks and weak social protection while still trying to cope with their long-lasting precariousness. Research limitations/implications This study points out to develop a more structured framework for capturing dependent self-employment and a series of research recommendations. Notably, we recommend future researchers study longitudinal settings satisfaction among the identified segments of entrepreneurs. Originality/value Contrary to the established knowledge, the obtained findings show that self-employment may be associated with even lower levels of job satisfaction than the salaried job.