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Entrepreneurial motivation: a non-entrepreneur’s journey to become an entrepreneur

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Abstract

In entrepreneurship literature, much research effort is focused on differentiating entrepreneurs, recognizing or exploiting opportunities, resources available or required, or a combination of the three entrepreneurship-defining factors. There is, however, very little research on understanding a non-entrepreneur’s motivation to become an entrepreneur. This greatly limits our knowledge of the entrepreneurial process. It has hindered our understanding of how non-entrepreneurs are motivated to pursue entrepreneurial career options and has led to misinformed decisions by scholars and policy makers. In this paper, our goal is to develop a theory of entrepreneurial motivation that explains how non-entrepreneurs develop the motivation to pursue entrepreneurship. We argue that an individual’s self-assessment of their identity is the primary factor in individuals developing entrepreneurial motivation. The identity self-assessment leads individuals either to seek enhancement of their identity or establish a new identity that opens them to the influence of entrepreneurial motivation reinforcing entrepreneurial exposure in their social environment.

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  1. Anderson School of Management, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-0001, USA

    Raj V. Mahto

  2. Bradley University, Peoria, IL, 61625, USA

    William C. McDowell

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  1. Raj V. Mahto
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Correspondence to Raj V. Mahto.

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Mahto, R.V., McDowell, W.C. Entrepreneurial motivation: a non-entrepreneur’s journey to become an entrepreneur. Int Entrep Manag J 14, 513–526 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-018-0513-8

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