As a special kind of social identity, entrepreneurial identity is derived from but distinguished from professional identity. Compared with the definition of professional identity solely based on self-identity theory, entrepreneurial identity is defined more from the perspective of role internalization, socialization, and collective recognition (Chen et al., 2015). Basing on the perspective of role internalization, scholars believe that entrepreneurs have a clear understanding and affirmative evaluation of self-role construction and internalization into self-concept in the entrepreneurial process. Entrepreneurs who internalize entrepreneurial roles will be motivated to do more activities with consistent roles (Hoang and Gimeno, 2010). Based on the perspective of social categorization, individuals first clarify their social positioning and belonging groups through social classification to identify whether they belong to this group and generate identity. Based on the perspective of collective recognition, scholars emphasize that entrepreneurs gain social recognition by constructing their own identities. Given the above definition, entrepreneurial identity includes two main stage characteristics: (1) determining the entrepreneurial identity means that individuals engage in entrepreneurship to confirm the identity of “entrepreneur,” that is, “who I am”; (2) the integration of entrepreneurial identity means that entrepreneurs integrate their cognitive model with entrepreneurial role characteristics, that is, “who I will be.” Following the viewpoint of Hekman et al. (2009), this study defines entrepreneurial identity as the degree of individual recognition and convergence of the characteristics of the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial identity plays an important role in entrepreneurial activities and the realization of entrepreneurial goals. It has always been a hot topic in the entrepreneurship research field. The impact of entrepreneurial identity is mainly at individual level and venture level. At the individual level, entrepreneurial identity can stimulate entrepreneurial passion (Murnieks et al., 2020), promote opportunity recognition and exploitation (Wry and York, 2017), and enhance entrepreneurial willingness (Mahto and McDowell, 2018) and entrepreneurial behavior (Anderson et al., 2019). At the venture level, entrepreneurial identity can effectively promote external resources acquisition (Wry and York, 2017), increase the creation of entrepreneurial enterprises (Pan et al., 2019), improve entrepreneurial performance (Oo et al., 2019), and promote the growth of enterprises (Ladge et al., 2019). Few scholars empirically examined the relationship between entrepreneurial identity and entrepreneurs' subjective well-being at the individual level.

To theoretically explain the dynamic process of entrepreneurial identity influencing the subjective well-being of entrepreneurship, this study introduces conservation of resources theory as a theoretical lens. Resource conservation theory is one of the strong influential theories in the research explaining the formation of individual well-being (Hobfoll, 2002). According to conservation of resources theory, individuals have limited resources and will continue to invest in resources to protect resources of existing value from loss (Hobfoll, 2011). This may have an important impact on their happiness. Recent research finds that conservation of resources theory has a strong explanatory role in explaining how CEO stewardship affects job well-being. Specifically, CEO stewardship behavior may produce both positive events that increase resources and negative events that deplete resources. The former enhances the CEO's positive emotions and improves well-being, whereas the latter increases the workload and reduces well-being (Kang and Peng, 2020). Thus, this study reveals the double-edged sword effect of entrepreneurial identity on entrepreneurs' subjective well-being based on conservation of resources theory. This effect pertains to the resource gain path that stimulates entrepreneurial subjective well-being and the resource depletion path that induces entrepreneurial subjective well-being.

As a state of work rumination, work-related problem-solving pondering reflects an individual's continuous psychological review of specific problems. It is measured by evaluating how previous work has been effectively improved, including thinking about problems from a new perspective, solving existing obstacles, and discovering creative methods. By facilitating problem solving, individuals have positive emotions and thus have a pleasant experience (Cropley and Zijlstra, 2011). According to conservation of resources theory, this study holds that entrepreneurial identity may promote work-related problem-solving pondering. Work-related problem-solving pondering is an individual's purposeful adjustment of cognition. The cognitive needs of entrepreneurs are an important inducement for work-related problem-solving pondering (Wach et al., 2021), and the identity of entrepreneurs can provide entrepreneurs with corresponding cognitive resources. First, entrepreneurial identity is strongly associated with entrepreneurial behavior (Hoang and Gimeno, 2010). Entrepreneurs usually have multiple identities in the entrepreneurial process (Mathias and Williams, 2017). When entrepreneurs assume one identity, they exhibit thinking and actions that distinguish them from other identities (Murnieks et al., 2011). Sometimes though, a series of conflicting behavior expectations need to be dealt with at the same time (Horton et al., 2014). The fact that entrepreneurs play different roles simultaneously further enhances entrepreneurial self-perceived resources. Second, entrepreneurs will inevitably encounter “waterloo” while starting a business. Entrepreneurs' identity may inspire them to maintain their multiple identities, which can not only encourage entrepreneurs to conduct self-verification but also spend more time and energy on role identity management to improve personal cognitive resources. Finally, an uncertain entrepreneurial environment leads to increased entrepreneurial risk, and entrepreneurial identity can lead to a strong sense of security and belonging, enhancing motivation to strive for ideals and inspiring strong entrepreneurial enthusiasm (Murnieks et al., 2014). Passionate entrepreneurs usually show higher entrepreneurial effort in their entrepreneurial activities (Cardon et al., 2017). Entrepreneurs usually actively reflect on their entrepreneurial efforts, actively learn, and constantly try to solve difficult problems and improve the methods and efficiency of their work in entrepreneurship. All these greatly enhance entrepreneurial problem-solving skills. Therefore, entrepreneurial identity may drive entrepreneurs to access appropriate cognitive resources that can effectively contribute to work-related problem-solving pondering. Work-related problem-solving pondering can further influence entrepreneurial well-being (Wach et al., 2021). Resource conservation theory emphasizes that individuals with abundant resources can obtain more resources to achieve resource gain (Zheng et al., 2015). With sufficient cognitive resources, entrepreneurs may promote work-related problem-solving pondering, which helps entrepreneurs solve problems in the entrepreneurial process, thereby enhancing their subjective well-being. Studies confirm that work-related problem-solving pondering has a significant positive effect in the field of work. For example, in the diary study of entrepreneurs, problem-solving pondering can significantly improve work creativity (Weinberger et al., 2018). In addition, problem-solving pondering has a stable cross-time effect in promoting the positive effects of work (Vahle-Hinz et al., 2017; Flaxman et al., 2018). Our research suggests that entrepreneurs' work-related problem-solving pondering will enhance their subjective well-being. The reasons are as follows: First, entrepreneurs always face a high uncertainty when starting a business and often need to solve the emerging difficulties. When entrepreneurs are thinking about a certain problem or discovering a certain abnormal phenomenon, they tend to adjust his cognitive schema to explain the abnormality, consider the rationality of the abnormal phenomenon, and seek more possibilities to solve the problem. This work-related problem-solving pondering may stimulate entrepreneurs' inspiration and thinking. In solving a core problem, the positive experience of problem-solving caused by sudden or unexpected “insights” may trigger entrepreneurs' subjective well-being. Second, entrepreneurs' work-related problem-solving pondering is seen as an experience of resource acquisition, involving emotional neutrality and constructive thinking, which helps to solve related work problems (Cropley and Zijlstra, 2011). When starting a business, entrepreneurs may be interested in how to improve their entrepreneurial performance. For example, when new products are introduced to the market, entrepreneurs may spend more time thinking and looking for business opportunities in their spare time. Through the comparative analysis of different schemes, entrepreneurs will further experience positive emotions and improve subjective well-being through work-related problem-solving pondering. The positive affect that individuals experience every day can significantly increase their daily job satisfaction and work engagement (Koopman et al., 2016). In summary, the identity of entrepreneurs promotes work-related problem-solving pondering, and work-related problem-solving pondering further improves their subjective well-being.

Work-related affective rumination is a negative cognitive state induced by the obstruction of work-related goals. It is mainly generated by work context and focuses on the negative emotional experience brought by work experience, which is intrusive, extensive, repetitive, and other characteristics (Cropley and Zijlstra, 2011). According to conservation of resources theory, under conditions of limited resources, individuals will invest in resources to protect existing resources from loss and to acquire new resources (Hobfoll, 2011). Although entrepreneurial identity can reap multiple resources, it also requires a drain on personal resources. This study argues that the destroyed effects of entrepreneurial identity may induce work-related affective rumination. The process of entrepreneurial identity is a resource investment and resource acquisition behavior. Entrepreneurs' pursuit of their own identity and the strengthening of their identity may consume their time, physical energy, and attention, and other resources, which in turn can lead to negative emotional experiences such as emotional exhaustion. Individuals are more likely to induce negative emotional experiences when work is characterized by demanding features such as “heavy workload,” “high emotional demands,” and “high conflict decision making” (Demerouti et al., 2001; Bakker et al., 2003). Entrepreneurial identity has exactly these characteristics. First, entrepreneurs have multiple role identities, and in certain contexts, entrepreneurs will extract a particular identity from the “role cluster” to determine their behavioral expectations. This expenditure of more work time and resources to satisfy the self-role identity increases the workload of the entrepreneur. Second, entrepreneurial identity is inseparable from external support and recognition of the entrepreneurial identity role. When building and maintaining relationships and interactions with external stakeholders, entrepreneurs need to control and adjust their emotions to cope with various challenges and obstacles, which makes entrepreneurs more prone to emotional attrition. Finally, when making decisions, entrepreneurs not only consider the role conflicts arising from their multiple identities but also weigh the conflicts of different stakeholders, which can consume plenty of executive resources such as attention and thinking. This then exacerbates entrepreneurs' emotional exhaustion. Entrepreneurial identity requires more work and tasks to be tackled and more time and energy to be spent, which can easily put entrepreneurs in a situation of work-related affective rumination.

Work-related affective rumination affects the well-being of entrepreneurs (Wach et al., 2021). According to conservation of resources theory, when an individual's physical and mental resources are threatened, the pressure experienced will lead to the depletion of resources. As a negative emotional experience, work-related affective rumination can destroy entrepreneurs' physical and mental resources, which can lead to a depletion of resources and then endanger the entrepreneur's subjective well-being. First, in a state of resource depletion, entrepreneurs face more challenges and pressures as the level of emotional regurgitation at work rises, making it difficult for them to achieve their desired goals and reducing their subjective well-being if they are unable to resolve current challenges in a timely manner. Second, individuals with work-related affective rumination tend to view work as an uncontrollable and unavoidable stressor (Pravettoni et al., 2007). This persistent ruminative thinking by entrepreneurs keeps cognitive resources occupied, occasionally depleting resources allocated to other tasks (Connolly et al., 2014). This constant depletion of cognitive resources for negative work and affective experiences may leave individual resources such as guaranteed sleep unrepaired, thus continuing to impair work role performance (Weinberger et al., 2018) and indirectly reducing entrepreneurs' subjective well-being. Finally, individuals with high levels of affective rumination tend to experience more emotional exhaustion (Flaxman et al., 2018), produce more feelings of weariness or spiritless (Querstret and Cropley, 2012), worsen depression (Vandevala et al., 2017), and reduce executive function (Cropley et al., 2016). This negative effect will continuously reduce entrepreneurs' job satisfaction, thereby reducing their subjective well-being. Research on the relationship between emotional rumination and well-being is supported in the previous literature. Entrepreneurial emotional appeals enhance affective rumination under entrepreneurial hindering stressors, thereby reducing entrepreneurial well-being (Wach et al., 2021). In summary, entrepreneurial identity increases work-related affective regurgitation, which in turn worsens their subjective well-being.

Mindfulness refers to an individual's uncritical attention and awareness of current events and experiences (Glomb et al., 2011). According to conservation of resources theory, the level of individual resources will affect the changes of their physical and mental resources in a specific situation. When individuals have rich personal resources, they can effectively make up for the lack of resources; when they have fewer personal resources, they cannot supplement the lack of resources, and it is difficult to obtain other resources (Hobfoll, 2002). As a vital and unique internal resource (Montani et al., 2018; Fisher et al., 2019), mindfulness demonstrates an individual-specific initial resource state. Mindfulness plays a crucial role in individual attitudes and behaviors (Good et al., 2016; Cood and Salanova, 2018). Mindfulness can be effective in soothing individuals' negative emotions, reducing exposure to stress and burnout (Nezlek et al., 2016), improving work performance (Dane and Brummel, 2014; Liu et al., 2020), and enhancing leadership performance (Karssiens et al., 2014). Previous research based on resource conservation theory also validates the moderating effect of mindfulness. For example, Wan et al. (2021) used a sample of 222 working college students in the United States and found that working college students with high levels of mindfulness are able to effectively supplement their resources and mitigate the negative effects of time pressure on work–school conflict. Qian et al. (2020), based on a sample of 161 leader-employee pairs as subjects in China, found that mindfulness is effective in compensating for individuals' psychological resources in the organization and reducing individuals' emotional depletion, thereby mitigating the negative effects of job insecurity on transformational leadership behavior. This suggests that mindfulness has the function of supplementing or increasing one's psychological resources, enhancing the gaining effect of resources, and slowing down the depleting effect of resources. According to resource conservation theory and the literature on mindfulness, we hold that mindfulness can not only enhance the resource level of entrepreneurs' identity, drive entrepreneurs to obtain resources, and promote resource gain (i.e., improve work-related problem-solving pondering) but also slow down the loss of resources consumed by entrepreneurs' identity (i.e., reduce work-related affective rumination).

Conservation of resources theory emphasizes that individuals with abundant resources tend to pursue more resources to enhance resource gain, whereas individuals with few resources avoid more resource loss to reduce resource loss (Hobfoll et al., 1990). Thus, different levels of mindfulness among entrepreneurs may influence their resource status and their sensitivity to resource gain and loss. This study argues that entrepreneurs with high levels of mindfulness may view entrepreneurial identity as an opportunity to access resources, thereby promoting work-related problem-solving pondering. On the one hand, mindful individuals tend to exhibit high levels of self-awareness (Vago and David, 2012). The higher the level of mindfulness of entrepreneurs, the more likely they are to be separated from the past and the future, focusing on the current entrepreneurial identity construction and identification experience. They will be fully committed, remain alert to entrepreneurship, always pay attention to external changes, constantly receive new information, and improve their own experience and capabilities. This present-focused experience and open-ended awareness can provide a positive way for entrepreneurs to cope, especially when faced with entrepreneurial difficulties and setbacks. On the other hand, mindfulness not only helps individuals achieve their goals, as traditional individual resources do but also helps individuals identify what they care about (Shapiro et al., 2006). As entrepreneurs face the process of constructing and identifying with complex role identities, those with high mindfulness may have a better chance of identifying and choosing entrepreneurial role identities that are more authentic and more in line with their values, needs, and interests, and thus continuously self-regulate. On the contrary, entrepreneurs with low mindfulness levels have fewer resources themselves. Under the condition of few resources, entrepreneurs are unlikely to regard identity as access to resources. This restricts entrepreneurs' access to resources through identity, thus hindering the gain of resources. Previous studies also find that under the condition of fewer resources, it is extremely difficult for individuals to try to use existing resources to obtain more additional resource gains (Hobfoll, 2002). Based on the above logic, the following hypotheses are proposed in this study:

Although conservation of resources theory emphasizes the “priority of loss,” it also suggests that the positive resources acquired by individuals can effectively supplement the negative effects of resource depletion through resource expenditure (Hobfoll, 2011). When individuals realize that resource consumption in a short period can effectively obtain long-term investment returns, they can alleviate the tension and pressure caused by high work requirements (Halbesleben et al., 2014). Therefore, we believe that entrepreneurs' high level of mindfulness can effectively cope with the multiple pressures faced by entrepreneurs' identity and effectively alleviate the depletion effect of entrepreneurial identity on work-related affective rumination. Specifically, on the one hand, individuals with mindfulness usually have a high capacity for self-regulation (Glomb et al., 2011). This ability to manage and perceive emotions in entrepreneurs with high levels of positive thinking may accommodate and resolve the negative emotional experiences associated with role-identity conflict and work stress, thereby reducing work-related affective rumination. Mindfulness is closely associated with emotions and that mindfulness can lead individuals to accurately and effectively perceive and regulate their emotional states, helping them to reduce overreaction and emotional dysregulation and achieve a state of good emotional regulation (Good et al., 2016). On the other hand, individuals with high mindfulness rely on open and flexible thought processing and openness to internal experiences and external stimuli (Glomb et al., 2011). Employees with high mindfulness can achieve positive assessments to view their emotions in a clearer and more objective way by tuning their self-attention (Hülsheger et al., 2013). In short, when they experience negative emotions, they do not get caught up in it. Therefore, individuals with high mindfulness can be separated from negative emotional states to repair their negative emotions. This objective acceptance enhances individuals' self-awareness of distinguishing events induced by thoughts or emotions, thereby enhancing their grasp of the environment and self-control (Zhang et al., 2017). The uncritical acceptance of entrepreneurs with high levels of mindfulness may better slow down work-related affective rumination. By contrast, entrepreneurs with low levels of mindfulness are more likely to fall into the work-related affective rumination dilemma due to the lack of sufficient external resources to compensate for the loss of entrepreneurial identity. Furthermore, due to limited individual resources, entrepreneurs with low levels of mindfulness may value the depletion of resources more, which further increases work-related affective rumination perceptions and traps them in a negative emotional dilemma. Low psychological capital not only fails to compensate for lost personal resources from workload but also fails to enhance resource gains in positive emotions for the CEO, which in turn endanger the CEO's own well-being (Kang and Peng, 2020). Recent research confirms the buffering effect of mindfulness on the relationship between job insecurity and emotional exhaustion (Qian et al., 2020). Based on the above discussion, we proposed the following hypothesis:

This study mainly adopts the questionnaire survey method and relies on the Wenjuanxing platform (https://www.wjx.cn) to collect online questionnaires data from entrepreneurs in cities across the country, involving IT, education, retail, and other industries. Taking part-time or graduated MBA students from the business college as the research object, through snowballing method, we asked them to invite their partners who are starting their own business or have experience in starting a business around them to participate in our research. The whole research process is roughly divided into three steps. First, the group members counted the information about MBA students who had entrepreneurial experience or starting a business. Second, the research team members sent the valid link address of the electronic questionnaire to the respondents and asked them to invite their business partners to fill in the questionnaire. Finally, after the questionnaires were collected, the researchers coded, screened, and sorted the questionnaires. The entire survey lasted nearly 1 week, and a total of 1,411 questionnaires were collected. After excluding invalid samples, a total of 882 valid samples were finally obtained, with an effective recovery rate of 62.5%. The descriptive characteristics of the samples are shown in Table 1.

The measurement scales used in this study were all based on well-established scales with high reliability and validity. To ensure the quality of the questionnaire, we carried out back-translation on all English scales, using seven-point Likert ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (completely agree). All scale items used in our research can be found in Appendix A.

Based on the viewpoint of Hekman et al. (2009), this study defines the entrepreneurial identity as the degree of individual recognition and convergence of the characteristics of the entrepreneur. The measurement of the independent variable entrepreneurial identity was measured with a six-item scale developed by Hekman et al. (2009). Sample items include “In general, when someone praises entrepreneurs, it feels like a personal compliment.” The Cronbach's α is 0.965, and the composite reliability is 0.966.

Work rumination refers to the state of individuals repeatedly thinking about work-related problems and events outside of work (Querstret and Cropley, 2012). We adopted a 10-item Work-Related Rumination Questionnaire (WRRQ) to measure two different kinds of work rumination (Cropley et al., 2012; Querstret and Cropley, 2012). Work-related problem-solving pondering has five items. An example is “After work I tend to think of how I can improve my work-related performance.” The Cronbach's α was 0.976, and the composite reliability is 0.9764. Work-related affective rumination has five items. An example is “I become tense when I think about work-related issues during my free time.” The Cronbach's α is 0.951, and the composite reliability is 0.9523.

Mindfulness refers to an individual's uncritical attention and awareness of current events and experiences (Glomb et al., 2011). The moderator variable mindfulness was measured with a five-item scale from Hülsheger et al. (2013). Sample items include “I found it difficult to stay focused on what was happening in the present.” The Cronbach's α is 0.980, and the composite reliability is 0.9804.

Based on the viewpoint of Newman et al. (2018), this study defines entrepreneurs' subjective well-being as an entrepreneur's overall assessment and subjective feelings about his or her quality of life, job satisfaction, and personal growth and development during the creation and operation of the business. The dependent variable entrepreneurs' subjective well-being was measured using a five-item scale from Newman et al. (2018). Sample items include “In most ways my life is close to my ideal.” The Cronbach's α is 0.961, and the composite reliability is 0.9611.

Seeing that we based our research on resource conservation theory to examine how entrepreneurial identity affect entrepreneurs' subjective well-being, we referred to previous studies on entrepreneurs' well-being. We took the entrepreneur's gender, age, education level, years of entrepreneurship, number of entrepreneurs, and industry as control variables.

The variables involved in this study are all self-reported by entrepreneurs, which may incur the issues of common method variance. For this reason, we adopted Harman's single-factor test and carried out principal component analysis on all variable measurement items involved in this study. The results show that among the five principal components extracted by the unrotated component matrix, the first principal component with the largest eigenvalue explains the variance of 42.824%, less than half of the total variance of 87.901%, which shows no obvious common method variance in this study.

In our study, confirmatory factor analysis is used to examine the distinguishing validity of entrepreneurial identity, work-related problem-solving pondering, work-related affective rumination, mindfulness, and entrepreneurial subjective well-being. As shown in Table 2, a five-factor model fits the data better (χ2/df = 1.304, CFI = 0.997, TLI = 0.997, RMSEA = 0.019) than the other factor models such as the four-factor, three-factor, and so on, which indicates that the variables have good discriminant validity and can represent the four different constructs.

Table 3 provides the means, standard deviations, and correlation coefficients for each variable. The results are shown in Table 3, where work-related problem-solving pondering is significantly positively related to entrepreneurial identity (r = 0.594, p < 0.01) and entrepreneurial subjective well-being (r = 0.402, p < 0.01), H1 is therefore preliminarily supported. Moreover, work-related affective rumination is significantly positively related to entrepreneurial identity (r = 0.095, p < 0.01), and to entrepreneurial subjective well-being (r = −0.107, p < 0.01) is significantly negatively related to entrepreneurial subjective well-being (r = –0.107, p < 0.01), H2 is therefore preliminarily supported. Mindfulness is significantly positively related to entrepreneurial identity (r = 0.505, p < 0.01) and work-related problem-solving rumination (r = 0.523, p < 0.01), suggesting that mindfulness may have a positive effect on work-related problem-solving pondering. Mindfulness is positively related to work-related affective rumination (r = –0.81, p < 0.01) and significantly negatively correlated, suggesting that mindfulness may harm work-related affective rumination. In addition, work-related problem-solving pondering is not significantly correlated with work-related affective rumination (r = 0.024, p > 0.05).

Following the test steps of the mediation effect proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986), this study uses hierarchical regression analysis to verify whether work-related problem-solving pondering and work-related affective rumination have a mediating effect between entrepreneur's identity and entrepreneurial subjective well-being. The analysis results are given in Table 4. Regarding the mediating effect of work-related problem-solving pondering, the specific results are shown in Table 4. After controlling the statistical characteristics of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial identity has a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial subjective well-being (Model 6, β = 0.333, p < 0.001), and entrepreneurial identity has a significant positive effect on work-related problem-solving pondering (Model 2, β = 0.612, p < 0.001). Model 7 shows a significant positive effect of work-related problem-solving pondering on entrepreneurial subjective well-being (β = 0.303, p < 0.001) after controlling for individual statistical characteristics of the entrepreneurs. When both the independent and mediating variables are included in the regression equation model, a significant positive effect of work-related problem-solving pondering on entrepreneurial subjective well-being remains (Model 9, β = 0.172, p < 0.001). The effect of entrepreneurial identity on entrepreneurial subjective well-being remains significant, but the regression coefficient changed from β = 0.333 (p < 0.001) to β = 0.228 (p < 0.001). It can be concluded that work-related problem-solving pondering partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial identity and subjective entrepreneurial well-being. Thus, H1 is supported. As for the mediating effect test of work-related affective rumination, as can be seen from Table 4, entrepreneurs' identity has a significant positive effect on work-related affective rumination (Model 4, β = 0.069, p < 0.05), and work-related affective rumination has a significant negative effect on entrepreneurial subjective well-being (Model 8, β = −0.122, p < 0.001). When the independent and mediating variables are included in the regression equation model, a significant negative effect of work-related affective rumination on entrepreneurial subjective well-being is still noted (Model 10, β = −0.168, p < 0.001). The influence of entrepreneurial identity on entrepreneurial subjective well-being remains significant, and the coefficient changes from β = 0.333 (p < 0.001) to β = 0.345 (p < 0.001). However, the indirect effect of work-related affective rumination is negative. The regression coefficient of entrepreneurial identity and work-related affective rumination and the regression coefficient of work-related affective rumination and entrepreneurial subjective well-being are different. The regression coefficients of main effects and indirect effects have opposite signs. According to the judgment method of “mediating effect” and “suppressing effect” by Wen and Ye (2014), work-related affective rumination is not a partial mediating effect between entrepreneurial identity and entrepreneurial well-being, but a partial “suppressing effect.” On the one hand, the existence of the “suppressing effect” of work-related affective rumination shows that the entrepreneurial identity indirectly affects the subjective well-being of entrepreneurs through work-related affective rumination. On the other hand, it also indicates a more effective intermediary variable between independent and dependent variables (Kenny et al., 2003). There is still a strong intermediary mechanism between entrepreneurial identity and entrepreneurial subjective well-being, which is not included in the vision of this study and, thus, needs to be further explored in the follow-up research.

This study uses hierarchical regression to examine the moderating effects of mindfulness on the relationship between entrepreneurial identity and work-related problem-solving pondering and the moderating effects of mindfulness on the relationship between entrepreneurial identity and work-related affective rumination. The analysis results are shown in Table 5. As seen from Table 5, in Models 12 and 14, the values of variance inflation factor are close to one, which indicates no multicollinearity problem among the variables in our study. The values of Durbin–Watson are close to two, which shows no autocorrelation problem among the variables. From Model 12 in Table 5, the interaction between entrepreneurial identity and mindfulness does not have a significant positive effect on work problem-solving pondering (Model 12, β = −0.071, p > 0.05), indicating that entrepreneurial mindfulness does not play a positive moderating role between entrepreneurial identity and work problem-solving pondering. H3 is not supported by the findings. The interaction between entrepreneurial identity and mindfulness has a significant negative effect on work-related affective rumination, as seen in Model 14 in Table 5 (Model 14, β = −0.104, p < 0.01). This suggests that entrepreneurial mindfulness negatively moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial identity and work-related affective rumination, verifying H4.

To further test whether the moderating effect of entrepreneurial mindfulness on the relationship between entrepreneurial identity and work-related affective rumination is as hypothesized, this study follows the method proposed by Aiken and West (1991) and further conducts a simple slope analysis (seen in Figure 2). Figure 2 shows that when mindfulness is low (M – SD), entrepreneurial identity has a positive effect on work-related affective rumination (γ = 0.171, t = 4.921, p < 0.001), whereas for higher mindfulness (M + SD), entrepreneurial identity is no longer significant on work-related affective rumination (γ = 0.013, t = 0.256, p > 0.05). This finding further supports H4.

First, we enrich the research on the influence of entrepreneurial identity on entrepreneurial subjective well-being and expand the antecedent variables of entrepreneurs' subjective well-being. Compared with the psychological well-being generated by the realization of an individual's self-potential, the subjective well-being caused by the individual's emotional experience and life evaluation may be more common given the greater emphasis on the conditions and process of the realization of entrepreneurial results, especially as high uncertainty and high risk are more prominent in the entrepreneurial context. Therefore, the dependent variable of this study is entrepreneurial subjective well-being. Although previous studies explore the antecedent variables of entrepreneurs' subjective well-being from factors such as individual characteristics (Hmieleski and Sheppard, 2019), motivations (Kibler et al., 2019; Amorós et al., 2021), and social networks (Newman et al., 2018; Wu and Song, 2019), as a kind of self-recognition of entrepreneurs, the influence of entrepreneurial identity on entrepreneurs' subjective well-being remains unknown. Previous studies emphasize the positive role of entrepreneurial identity in entrepreneurial decision-making and entrepreneurial performance, but they relatively neglect its potential unfavorable effects. Therefore, this research focuses on the double-edged sword effect of entrepreneurial identity on entrepreneurs' subjective well-being. The results show that entrepreneurial identity can not only promote entrepreneurs' problem-solving pondering to enhance entrepreneurial subjective well-being but also lead to their work-related affective rumination to reduce entrepreneurial subjective well-being. Our research not only enriches the influence of entrepreneurial identity on entrepreneurial subjective well-being but also expands antecedent variables of entrepreneurial subjective well-being.

Second, based on conservation of resources theory, the two-dimensional structure of work ruminating is introduced as mediator variables to integrate the formation mechanism of entrepreneurs' subjective well-being. Existing studies explain the formation of entrepreneurs' subjective well-being based on difference theory and self-determination theory, but these studies mainly focus on entrepreneurial results in entrepreneurial motivation, resource acquisition, and entrepreneurial returns. The “process effect” of entrepreneurship lacks scholarly attention. The entrepreneurship process effect emphasizes that when entrepreneurs value the results, they should also pay attention to the conditions and processes of achieving results. Although some scholars study the formation of entrepreneurial subjective well-being based on resource conservation theory, they only investigate from a single gain mechanism and lack an integrated perspective. For example, Marshall et al. (2020) found that access to entrepreneurial resources can affect entrepreneurs' subjective well-being by the resource acquisition mechanism of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. However, this study does not reveal the depletion mechanism of entrepreneurs' cognitive or behavior on entrepreneurial subjective well-being. Similarly, the conclusion of Leung et al. (2020) shows that emotional and instrumental family support can influence the subjective well-being of SME employers by work–family balance. However, they also did not examine the depletion mechanisms that affect subjective well-being. Based on resource conservation theory, this study integrates resource gain and resource depletion mechanisms to reveal that entrepreneurial identity has both resource gain and resource loss effects by the two-dimensional structure of work rumination as mediator variables. This research enriches the mechanism of entrepreneurial identity influence entrepreneurial subjective well-being and provides new theoretical support for a comprehensive explanation of why an entrepreneur's identity has a dual effect on entrepreneurial subjective well-being. It is helpful for us to deepen the understanding of how entrepreneurial identity affects entrepreneurial subjective well-being.

Third, our research defines the boundary conditions of entrepreneurial identity affecting work-related emotional rumination. In previous studies about work rumination, scholars call for more research on the boundary conditions for the double-edged sword effect of work rumination (Zhang et al., 2020). In this research, under the framework of resource preservation theory, we introduce individual characteristic variables—mindfulness—to further explore its moderating role in the process of entrepreneurial identity influencing work rumination. Our research shows that mindfulness negatively moderates the positive relationship between entrepreneurial identity and work-related affective rumination. In other words, entrepreneurs with a high level of mindfulness can reduce the intensity of entrepreneurial identity rumination against work-related affective rumination. This conclusion suggests that mindfulness can reduce the resource depletion of affective rumination caused by entrepreneurs' identities. Our study extends the existing literature on the boundary conditions of entrepreneurial identity affecting work affective rumination, which helps to provide a clearer understanding of the outcomes of entrepreneurial identity. Additionally, this study helps enrich the application of resource conservation theory from the perspective of individual characteristics.

This study finds that the entrepreneurial identity can generate problem-solving pondering related to work, but it may also cause them to fall into affective rumination at work, which reflects a double-edged sword effect. Thus, when enhancing entrepreneurial identity, entrepreneurs should be alert and aware of the potential damage effects of entrepreneurial identity. The conclusions of this research provide theoretical guidance and practical implications for entrepreneurs and policymakers on how to improve entrepreneurs' subjective well-being in entrepreneurship. First, entrepreneurs should take a rational view of entrepreneurial identity because it can trigger two completely different kinds of work rumination, which in turn bring some benefits and costs to happy entrepreneurs. In entrepreneurial practice, even if entrepreneurial identity can play a positive role for entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs should not pursue entrepreneurial identity excessively and unilaterally. Second, entrepreneurs should strengthen their self-management of entrepreneurial subjective well-being. Compared with the cognitive and emotional experience of entrepreneurs, although the entrepreneurial environment and the characteristics of entrepreneurial activities can enhance or inhibit the subjective well-being of entrepreneurs, these factors are often external, and the critical role depends on the entrepreneur himself. Our study finds that entrepreneurs' work-related problem-solving pondering promotes their subjective well-being, but work affective rumination inhibits it. Entrepreneurs should not only improve their ponding ability to solve work problem but also reduce getting bogged down by work-related affective rumination. Entrepreneurs can enhance cooperation and communication among members by entrepreneurial team skills training to improve their cognitive resilience in the thinking process of dealing with problems, especially the core ability to cope with entrepreneurial uncertainty and high failure rate, relieve negative emotional experiences and improve entrepreneurial well-being. Finally, entrepreneurs should focus on cultivating or improving their mindfulness level. Mindfulness has the characteristic of plasticity. Through a series of mindfulness training, entrepreneurs can improve their open-mindedness to new things and maintain stable attention so that they can view problems more objectively and neutrally, thus weakening the negative effect of entrepreneurial identity on work-related affective rumination.

The conclusions of this study guide entrepreneurial policymakers to formulate and implement entrepreneurial policies. First, entrepreneurship policymakers should design flexible management policies to help entrepreneurs handle their daily work arrangements flexibly and enhance the controllability of their own entrepreneurial identity. For example, by adopting a flexible working system, entrepreneurs can effectively respond to the needs of multiple entrepreneurial roles and reduce the possibility of work-related affective rumination. Second, entrepreneurial policymakers can set up entrepreneur training and management projects. The establishment of training management programs can effectively provide entrepreneurs with intellectual support and enhance their identity to obtain scarce external resources that are helpful for entrepreneurship. At the same time, corresponding measures ought to be taken to reduce the potential destroyed effects of entrepreneurial identity. For example, entrepreneurial policymakers can cultivate entrepreneurial incubators, build an online entrepreneurial communication platform, actively build and maintain the resources of entrepreneurs, and create a better entrepreneurial environment for entrepreneurs. It is helpful for entrepreneurs to alleviate the resource depletion caused by entrepreneurial identity, which in turn enhances entrepreneurs' subjective well-being. Finally, entrepreneurial policymakers should improve the entrepreneurial institutions. The entrepreneurial environment has the characteristics of policy variability, discontinuity, and high uncertainty. Only through a healthy institutional environment can entrepreneurs experience entrepreneurial satisfaction and achievement while truly experiencing a fair and competitive market environment. It is helpful for entrepreneurs who are under more pressure and responsibilities, particularly those who are experiencing or preparing to start a business, to truly and fully understand themselves and experience happiness during entrepreneurship.

This study has certain limitations. First, all variables are measured by entrepreneurs' self-assessment at the same point in time, which are cross-sectional data, reflecting the correlation between variables rather than causality. Thus, the causal links among the variables cannot be strictly and precisely tested. Future studies can use longitudinal surveys and experiencing sampling methods to examine the research variables and further improve the accuracy of the research result. Second, based on resource conservation theory, this study proposes and tests a mediating effect of work-related problem-solving pondering and work-related affective rumination. However, work-related affective rumination produces partial “suppressing effects” on the relationship between entrepreneurial identity and entrepreneurial well-being. Although this shows that entrepreneurial identity indirectly affects entrepreneurs' subjective well-being through work-related affective rumination, it also shows that there are mediator variables with greater effects between independent variables and dependent variables (Kenny et al., 2003). Other mediator variables endanger the subjective well-being of entrepreneurship through resource depletion path. For example, individuals exhibit emotional exhaustion that depletes their emotional resources, potentially increasing entrepreneurial ego depletion and thus reducing entrepreneurial subjective well-being. Subsequent research can further examine the mechanisms by which entrepreneurial emotional exhaustion mediates entrepreneurial identity and entrepreneurial subjective well-being. Third, based on the conservation of resources theory, this study brings entrepreneur mindfulness into the theoretical model of this study. However, mindfulness does not strengthen the access to resources, that is, it does not play a positive role in moderating the relationship between entrepreneurial identity and work-related problem-solving pondering. There may be other individual characteristic variables related to this research model. For example, an individual's pro-social motivation also affects the individual's job characteristics and changes in emotional resources (Kibler et al., 2019), which may enhance the work-related problem-solving pondering brought about by the entrepreneur's identity and bring role stress. Future studies should further examine the boundary conditions under which entrepreneurial identity affects the benefits or costs of entrepreneurs' subjective well-being. Finally, although this research explores the linear relationship between entrepreneurial identity and entrepreneurial subjective well-being based on resource conservation theory and is supported by empirical research, follow-up research can further investigate the non-linear relationship between the two, that is, the inverted U-shaped relationship. This is likely to be a research direction worthy of further advancement in future research.