Why and when does person-entrepreneurship misfit promote entrepreneurial exit intention? A conservation of resources perspective

Although entrepreneurial exit can be regarded as a career choice, we lack an in-depth understanding of the psychological mechanism driving entrepreneurs to have this intention. Based on the integration of person-environment fit theory and conservation of resources theory, we illustrated a moderated mediation model to explore how misfit between entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurship affects entrepreneurs' intention to exit their current business. We used three-wave data from 287 owner-manager entrepreneurs to test the hypotheses. Our results indicated that person-entrepreneurship misfit was positively related to entrepreneurial burnout, which was in turn associated with entrepreneurial exit intention. Furthermore, we found that the entrepreneurial exit plan strengthened the effect of entrepreneurial burnout on entrepreneurial exit intention and the indirect effect of person-entrepreneurship misfit on entrepreneurial exit intention. This study expands fit/misfit and entrepreneurial exit literature by providing new insight into the psychological mechanism of person-entrepreneurship misfit on entrepreneurial exit intention from the perspective of the conservation of resources.