What are the Necessary Psychological Well-being Conditions for Women Entrepreneurs to Feel Effective?

ABSTRACT Objective: to identify which psychological well-being (PWB) conditions help women entrepreneurs feel efficacious. Method: relational, quantitative, and cross-sectional survey design. We collected data from 252 Brazilian female entrepreneurs in western Santa Catarina. We validated the instruments with robust confirmatory factor analysis and tested the statements through multiple necessary condition analysis (NCA). Results: the findings reveal the percentage thresholds of necessary conditions to achieve 100% of the outcomes. Personal growth (66.7%) and purpose in life (45.5%) act as facilitators for enabling entrepreneurs to develop new products or explore market opportunities. Environmental mastery (50%) and purpose in life (63.6%) also serve as facilitators, while self-acceptance (37.5%) functions as an optimizer for defining the main business objective. In addition, purpose in life (45.5%) and self-acceptance (37.5%) serve as optimizers for managing key human resources. Finally, purpose in life (54.5%) and self-acceptance (37.5%) function as facilitator and as optimizer, respectively, for initiating contact with investors. Conclusion: by identifying the PWB conditions for ESE, our study advances research on how mental health phenomena influence women’s entrepreneurial processes.