Understanding entrepreneurs’ loneliness: An integrative review of loneliness in management research

Entrepreneurship is a rewarding yet demanding path often marked by loneliness—a phenomenon with significant implications for entrepreneurs’ health and performance. Yet, existing research on loneliness in entrepreneurship suffers from scattered findings, inconsistent terminology, and insufficient attention to its connections with broader work-context loneliness research. This study addresses the current challenge by reviewing 163 papers across three management streams: entrepreneurship, leadership, and workplace. We map the landscape of loneliness and related constructs and propose an integrated framework for research on entrepreneurs’ loneliness. Our framework explores the interconnectedness of individual, social, and work dimensions of loneliness, considering the varying stability and durability of factors contributing to and arising from two types of loneliness: entrepreneurs’ state and trait loneliness. By synthesizing dispersed findings and proposing a future research agenda, this study advances a more coherent understanding of entrepreneurs’ loneliness and bridges disciplinary divides in management research.