The (Mixed) Motivations of Those Engaged in Enterprise and Experiencing Poverty

Abstract

since it carries with it the potential for reduction of unemployment rates. However, while it is true that new businesses employ the founder and sometimes others (Audretsch and Thurik, 2001), business is not an economic panacea. It has become associated with economic valueadding because of the conflation of two quite distinct types of business activity. First are the growth-oriented start-ups with the potential to contribute employment and financial value, referred to specifically as 'entrepreneurial' firms (Baumol, 1990;Audretsch, 2006;Bögenhold, 2019). Thereafter, all other businesses, including selfemployment, are pulled together with these to arrive at a conceptual and statistical 'entrepreneurship' rate (e.g. Bosma and Kelley, 2019). In this chapter we use the term 'enterprise' to refer to holistic business venturing activity, thereby reserving the term 'entrepreneurship' for a specific growth-oriented business type.Despite the conflation of the range of business, there is an ongoing narrative throughout the literature that, by value-adding, (all) enterprise generates wealth and is therefore a solution to poverty (see for example Rindova et al., 2009;Bruton et al., 2013). Supporting this assertion is evidence of high levels of intentions to start up or become self-employed amongst the Western poor (unhelpfully referred to in some papers as 'entrepreneurial intentions') (Hart et al., 2018). This chapter explores if a context of poverty itself is a contributing motivator for pursuing enterprise and how it might inform and shape ensuing enterprise experiences.According to a UN report, a fifth of the UK population live in poverty (where poverty is defined as family income below a government-defined threshold) (Alston, 2018). This poverty intersects with enterprise, and rates of poverty for the self-employed are the highest for any 'employed' group (Galloway et al., 2016; Scottish Government, 2016, respectively). Further, the extent of the poverty is worsening, with greater reduction in income levels amongst self-employed people in the lowest income centile than other groups (Belfield et al., 2015). Assuming poverty is not a satisfactory state for individuals, a question central in this chapter is: What were the original motivations of those engaged in enterprise, and now living in poverty, for this mode of work?This chapter proceeds as follows. First, we review the literature on enterprise motivations. Thereafter we set out the methodology used to collect and analyse the data presented. We discuss our findings and present conclusions with considerations given

Organising family and business: Affective value prioritisation amongst older entrepreneurs

“…Shapero and Sokol, 1982; Krueger, 2009), an almost exclusive focus that has been subject to some compelling critique (Tedmanson et al, 2012; Welter et al, 2017). Recent empirical studies have found that entrepreneurship occurs in response to multiple and overlapping drivers however (Williams, 2008; Dawson and Henley, 2012; Kapasi et al, 2021), and these are, in turn, influenced by antecedent conditions and circumstances idiosyncratically experienced (Galloway et al, 2019). The polymorphous nature of business motivations is also explored throughout the family business literature (Perry et al, 2015; Holt et al, 2017).…”

Advancing the understanding of value in entrepreneurship editorial

“…These articles examine (a) the motivations of older entrepreneurs with a focus on affective value creation related to family and personal well-being and how these may influence subsequent business model choices made, (b) poverty and the multiple, and unexpected, value(s) of entrepreneurship that may provide a route out of poverty (c) the context-informed motivations of Indigenous peoples in South America, (d) cultural values and their role in agricultural-based entrepreneurship in rural Scandinavia, and (e) the role of foundational (value) embeddedness in small firm decision making in the creative sector. Consequently, each engagement in entrepreneurship, or ‘entrepreneuring’ as per Hashim and Gaddefors, can be positioned as an ‘opportunity’ to achieve idiosyncratic value (Kapasi et al, 2021). In summary, these papers provide an opportunity to develop the conversation regarding the construct, concept, and measurement of ‘value’, thereby enhancing our knowledge on theoretical and empirical understanding of myriad and idiosyncratic value in the entrepreneurship context.…”