The impact of technostress on small business owners burnout: the mediating role of strain

A revised stress-strain-outcome (SSO) model of burnout was empirically tested with a large sample of 239 small business owners. Our model differentiates the consequences of strain into short-term and long-term consequences to study the mechanisms through which technostress (technostressors) affects strain (short-term consequence) and job burnout as an outcome (long-term consequence). Our results revealed three technostressors (techno-induced work overload, techno-induced job insecurity, and techno-induced role ambiguity) to be positively and directly associated with small business owners' strain. There was no direct effect of technostressors on burnout. Considering the short-term and long-term consequences, strain fully mediated the relationship between technostressors and burnout. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.