Lifestyle Entrepreneurship: Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

Research in leading entrepreneurship and management journals has tended to conceptualize entrepreneurship as motivated by the goals of wealth, income, or social value creation. This research has thus largely overlooked entrepreneurial motivations such as the desire to engage in particular activities that the entrepreneurs find rewarding or the desire to live in particular locations. The literature on such Lifestyle Entrepreneurship (LE) includes research on artisan, artistic, craft, creative, fitness, hobbyist, leisure, sport, and tourism entrepreneurship. This literature has grown quickly over the last decade, but it is scattered across a range of domains, disciplines, and journals and lacks conceptual clarity. In this review, we take stock, synthesize and offer definitions and a framework for investigation of LE that allows for its development and theoretical integration with, and contribution to, existing entrepreneurship theory. We conceptualize LE in relation to its purpose and function, identify different types of LE, and examine their respective antecedents, behaviours, and outcomes. We propose a research agenda based on the merits of viewing LE as a distinctive and theoretically important domain for the study of entrepreneurship and highlight the vital role that LE plays in enriching both individual and social welfare.