Why women enter into entrepreneurship: an explanatory model

Abstract

Develops a model of the factors that motivate women to start their own businesses. Qualitative research involving 25 French women entrepreneurs were used to explore case study situations. The research identified a number of situations that relate to women’s decisions to become entrepreneurs, namely “dynastic compliance”, “no other choice”, “entrepreneurship by chance”, “natural succession”, “forced entrepreneurship”, “informed entrepreneur” and “pure entrepreneur”. The findings do not reinforce the assumption that a majority of women become entrepreneurs for reasons of necessity and identified antecedents to the generalised “push”, “pull” and environmental motives.