Beyond Business Support: How Incubators Shape Coping Strategies Among Early-Stage Entrepreneurs

Sammanfattning

Entrepreneurial mental health has been linked to significant individual and venture-level outcomes, including reduced self-efficacy, impaired decision-making, and increased likelihood of exit. However, an underexplored dimension within entrepreneurship research concerns how early-stage entrepreneurs actively cope with psychological strain, and in particular how formal support structures such as incubators shape these coping processes. This thesis aims to explore how incubators influence the coping strategies of early-stage entrepreneurs experiencing mental health challenges during the startup phase. A qualitative, abductive research design is applied, drawing on ten semi-structured interviews with eight early-stage founders and two incubator program coordinators across the Netherlands and Sweden. Empirical data is analysed using the Gioia methodology, with common themes and dimensions derived through first- and second-order categorisation. Firstly, the findings show that psychological strain, including sleep disruption, internalisation of failure, and professional isolation, is a structurally embedded feature of early-stage entrepreneurship rather than an individual anomaly. Secondly, we find that incubators shape coping primarily through relational mechanisms, particularly mentor relationships and peer normalisation, rather than through formally designed psychological support. Thirdly, we find that incubator participation is associated with a gradual transformation in coping strategies, from avoidance and overwork toward more deliberate and disclosive approaches. Finally, we find significant ambivalence in how founders experience incubator support, including performative pressure, destabilising peer comparison, and the unsustainability of informal emotional care absorbed by coordinators. The findings of this thesis suggest future research on 1.) the psychological dimensions of incubator design, 2.) the relational mechanisms through which coping develops in entrepreneurial ecosystems, and 3.) the emotional sustainability of entrepreneurial support work.