THE ROLE OF SRI LANKAN COPRENEURIAL COUPLES AND ANTECEDENTS OF WORK-LIFE CONFLICT

Abstract

Copreneurs are couples who share ownership, commitment, and responsibility for a business together. Since there was very little knowledge of the copreneurs' business in the context of Sri Lanka, this study attempts to explore their roles and antecedents of work-life conflict. This study follows an interpretive approach and narrative design. A purposive sampling procedure was applied, and ten interviews were conducted to generate data for the study. The analysis of collected qualitative data was done by narratives as the case study method. Findings show that four leading roles create a business's foundation and development, such as division of labour, husband as a leader, household management, and unpaid labour. Moreover, networking, role overload, competing family responsibilities, love and understanding of entrepreneurial couples, parental responsibilities, and decision-making are identified as the influences on work-life balance and conflict between copreneurial couples. These findings may be used to guide future research, develop educational programmes for copreneurs, and enlighten couples in copreneurial business or those considering copreneurship on how to manage business and family life effectively. This research mainly contributes to the family business field by focusing on copreneurs and combining different theoretical perspectives. Further, this study develops a model, which combines the roles and antecedents of work-life conflict for copreneurs which were not reported previously in the literature.