Mumpreneurs' motivations, life satisfaction and entrepreneurial experiences: A phenomenological study

The aim of this research is to reveal the entrepreneurial adventures of mumpreneurs. The phenomenological research approach of qualitative research method was chosen since mumpreneur is a new phenomenon under women's entrepreneurship and there hasn't been any research on a similar subject in Turkey before. Since the phenomenon of the research is to be a mumpreneur, mumpreneurs formed the research universe. Mumpreneurs, who took care of at least one child at primary school age (0-10 years old) and founded their enterprise, formed the research universe. One-on-one interviews were conducted with 22 mumpreneurs. Questions about their thoughts on entrepreneurship and motherhood, their entrepreneurial motivations, how their initiatives affected their lives, success and growth criteria, and how information technologies, especially social media, affected their initiatives were asked. The research produced a number of results. When the discourses of mumpreneurs about motherhood, which are classified under two main categories, namely individual and social, are examined, it is observed that "Acquiring a new perspective" is the most repeated code under the individual dimension, while "Responsibility" and "Priority" come to the fore under the social category. The motivations of being a mumpreneur were grouped under five themes: "Personal", "Family", "Social", "Corporate Working Life" and "New Job". The desire to take care of the child under "Family Reasons" ranked second after the desire to work under "Personal Reasons". Thanks to mumpreneurship, women have aimed not to stay away from their children and to continue to be productive. Social media played a very important role in establishing their enterprises. They have the chance to reach many people by using the opportunities of social media without allocating a budget for marketing and open their own shops in the virtual environment. The research contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by presenting findings about how the phenomenon of motherhood in women's entrepreneurship affects their enterprises and also contributes to motherhood literature by the discourses about motherhood.