Attitude towards the profession, emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and intention to abandon tourism SMEs as an entrepreneur: a conditional mediation model

Abstract

While small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are fundamental to the tourism industry, the literature analysing those that fail is scarce. The present study addresses the reasons by examining how two dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion and cynicism) and attitude towards being an entrepreneur influence the intention of entrepreneurs to leave their businesses. It also demonstrates the role of conditional mediation, where attitude towards being an entrepreneur moderates the mediation of cynicism in the relationship between emotional exhaustion and intention to abandon one's business. The sample comprised 231 SME entrepreneurs, and the data were analysed using tri-level approach: partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM); necessary condition analysis (NCA); and artificial neural networks (ANN). The results confirm the importance of the variables above in the participants' intention to abandon one's business.