Relación entre el capital psicológico y el desempeño económico de los emprendedores durante la pandemia de covid-19 en el Ecuador.

Abstract

The uncertain times caused by the outbreak of the pandemic have made individuals vulnerable, especially in economies that have been experiencing political, economic, and social instability, as is the case of Ecuador. For this reason, it is necessary to analyze which are the factors that influence the creation and duration of enterprises, whether their cause derives from physical or intellectual capacities, or whether it depends more on the behavior of the agents. The objective of this study is to design a structural equation model to determine whether the relationship between psychological capital and economic performance is valid. And in parallel, to analyze whether the constructs: life satisfaction and/or emotional exhaustion help as mediating variables. The findings confirmed that indeed the psychological capital of the entrepreneurs is positively and significantly related to the economic performance of the ventures, and that this direct effect is greater than if life satisfaction were used as a mediator to explain this relationship. While emotional exhaustion was not statistically significant in explaining the economic performance of ventures in the context of Covid-19 in Ecuador.