Based on self-determination theory, this study aims to examine the impact of satisfaction of basic psychological needs on the commitment to stay self- or salary-employed. Not only the entry of individuals but also their commitment to remain self-employed is important. Enterprises established by the self-employed can only survive longer if the owners are willing to continue in self-employment. For this, we analyzed the effect of Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness on career commitment (CC). We also additionally explored the complementary effect of five personality traits namely, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extrovert, Neuroticism, and Openness on the CC, in a way that a higher level of any five personality traits might augment or decrease the effect of the above three factors on CC. The study was conducted among a Pakistani sample drawn from Karachi. An online survey was conducted among self- and salary-employed individuals in Pakistan. These processes yielded 370 responses. Differences in the impact of Autonomy, competence, and relatedness on the commitment to self-employed or salaried-employment in Pakistan were examined using Smart PLS, Partial Least square, and ANOVA using SPSS (multigroup analysis). The results suggested that competence and relatedness seem to have a significant and positive effect on CC, whereas autonomy negatively affects CC. The results also suggested that Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extrovert seems to have more Career commitment as compared to their counterpart. In Contrast, Neuroticism, and openness seem to have lesser CC. The Moderation analysis suggested that Agreeableness, and Openness seem to augment the effect of autonomy, and relatedness, whereas seems to lessen the effect of competence on CC. Similarly, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism seem to augment the effect of relatedness, and competence and, whereas seem to lessen the effect of autonomy, on CC. Lastly, Extrovert seems to augment the effect of autonomy and competence and, whereas seems to lessen the effect of, relatedness on CC. The findings revealed that the self-employed exhibit the Same commitment to their current form of employment as the salary-employed. The satisfaction of needs for autonomy and competence were associated with higher levels of commitment to self-employment as to salary-employment across the three countries. The need for relatedness was also strongly associated with commitment to self-employment much more than to salary-employment for Pakistan participants. Persistence in self-employment is essential not only for individuals to remain employed but also as a pathway to achieving career success. This research contributes to the understanding of antecedents for commitment to self-employment across industries, and therefore what should be done to enable particularly young individuals to stay self-employed
