Motivations of aspiring male and female entrepreneurs

Abstract This study examines the motives that stimulate individuals into becoming business proprietors. More specifically, it aims to discover if entrepreneurs have multiple motives for creating their enterprises, if non‐economic motives predominate over economic ones, and if men and women have similar reasons for business founding. Results, based on personal interviews with 35 men and 34 women, indicate that both genders have a variety of reasons for founding and that women, as well as men, are primarily motivated by autonomy, achievement, a desire for job satisfaction and other non‐economic rewards. A desire to make money is not, however, an unimportant motive. Turning to differences in motives we find that women are less concerned with making money and often choose business proprietorship as a result of career dissatisfaction. They also see entrepreneurship as a means of meeting simultaneously their own career needs and the needs of their children.