Persistence in self-employment is crucial for entrepreneurial activities to generate long-term economic benefits. Consequently, this research examined the commitment of the self-employed towards their business as an important determinant of persistence. However, this research treats the self-employed as one entity. Yet we assume that especially for the research on commitment the differentiation of the self-employed into solo self-employed individuals (self-employed individuals without employees) and employer entrepreneurs (self-employed individuals with employees) provides seminal insights. Thus, this study examined differences in affective commitment to (emotional attachment to and identification with) one’s business and its antecedents between these self-employment forms. We used data of German solo self-employed individuals (n = 117) and employer entrepreneurs (n = 103) from the European Working Condition Survey (EWCS 2010). A simple t test revealed that the solo self-employed individuals report lower levels of affective commitment to their business than employer entrepreneurs. Moreover, regression analyses revealed that satisfaction of the needs for autonomy and competence was more strongly related to affective commitment for the solo self-employed than that for employer entrepreneurs, whereas satisfaction of the need for relatedness was more weakly related among the solo self-employed than that the employer entrepreneurs. These results suggest that solo self-employed individuals and employer entrepreneurs not only differ in affective commitment to their businesses but also in their antecedents. Implications for research on motivational processes of the self-employed and for fostering persistence in self-employment are discussed.

坚持自我经营对于创业活动产生长期经济利益至关重要。因此，本研究将个体经营者对其业务的承诺作为持久性的重要决定因素。但是，本研究将个体经营者视为一个整体。然而，我们认为，特别是对于承诺的研究，将个体经营者分为个体个体经营者（无雇员的个体经营者）和雇主企业家（具有雇员的个体经营者）提供了开创性的见解。因此，本研究考察了这些个体经营形式在对企业及其前身的情感承诺（情感依恋和认同）上的差异。我们使用了德国个体经营个体的数据（n  = 117）和雇主企业家（n  = 103）来自《欧洲工作状况调查》（EWCS 2010）。一个简单的t测试显示，与雇主企业家相比，个体经营者对企业的情感承诺水平较低。此外，回归分析表明，对自主和能力需求的满足与对个体经营者的情感承诺的关系要比对雇主企业家更强烈，而对相关性的满足与对个体经营者的联系的依赖性更弱。比那个雇主企业家。这些结果表明，个体经营个体和雇主企业家不仅在对企业的情感承诺上有所不同，而且在其前身上也有所不同。讨论了对个体经营者的激励过程的研究和促进个体经营者坚持性的意义。