Article Abstract
Firms evolve within the temporal context of entrepreneurs’ lives, over the course of which entrepreneurs experience various life events. To advance our understanding of the temporal dynamics that entrepreneurs’ life events trigger at the entrepreneur and firm levels, and how entrepreneurs can navigate these dynamics, this study applies a life course perspective to introduce a theory of firms’ temporal embeddedness in entrepreneurs’ lives. This theory outlines the reciprocal temporal coupling between entrepreneurs’ life events and firm-level dynamics, thereby offering novel insights into the managerial challenges entrepreneurs face in navigating life events. In particular, this study introduces theorizing on the direction, magnitude, valence, and temporal pattern of the impact of life events on both firm goals and firm performance. It explicates the temporal prediction problem and cost–benefit trade-offs entrepreneurs face when navigating life events, and it introduces theoretical insights into the effectiveness and efficiency of different dynamic navigation strategies for managing the impact of various classes of life events. By advancing a life embeddedness theory that temporally embeds firms into entrepreneurs’ event-filled lives, this study contributes to research at the intersection of entrepreneurs’ private lives and businesses, and to event-based perspectives on entrepreneurship.
Academy of Management Review, July 2026
About the researcher
Mateja Andric is an assistant professor/lecturer in management at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and an affiliated researcher at the Center for Family Enterprise within the House of Innovation, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden. Her research focuses on how firms are embedded in human lives, exploring questions such as how private life and business interact over time across entrepreneurs’ life courses and how firms are shaped by past, present, and future events in entrepreneurs’ lives. Her work has been published in premier management and entrepreneurship journals such as the Academy of Management Review and the Journal of Business Venturing. She holds a PhD in management from the University of St. Gallen.