Are bricoleurs more satisfied? How bricolage affects entrepreneur job satisfaction among experienced versus novice entrepreneurs

When creating and scaling an entrepreneurial venture, founders often face high entrepreneurial demands, straining their well-being. Drawing on job demands-resources theory, we propose that entrepreneurs can apply bricolage as a promising resourceful behavior to face such demands to achieve work–life balance and, in turn, increase their job satisfaction. Moreover, we introduce entrepreneurial experience as a moderator influencing these relationships. Data from 675 founders of German entrepreneurial ventures indicate that bricolage positively impacts job satisfaction for both experienced and novice entrepreneurs. Interestingly, the mediating effect of work–life balance between bricolage and job satisfaction was only significant for experienced entrepreneurs, who can deploy this mechanism to further increase their job satisfaction. We confirmed the robustness of our results with additional data from 283 self-employed individuals from the U.S. This paper contributes to our understanding of the consequences and effectiveness of bricolage on entrepreneur well-being.