The Role of Family Dynamics During A Transition to an Entre-Preneurial Career: A Study of Youth Entrepreneurs in Ethiopia
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Date
2024-02-17
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A.A.U
Abstract
The purpose of thesis is to explore the role of family dynamics in the process of the transi-tioning of adolescent family members to an entrepreneurial career. It draws on a longitudinal study of young entrepreneurs who chose their careers in entrepreneurship through co-establishing new firms against a family embedded in an institutional setting where entrepre-neurship career choice is not the common norm. In this case, the study explores how the youth entrepreneurs relate the transitioning process to their entrepreneurial career to family members’ feelings, actions, and reactions. The thesis lines up with two strands of the litera-ture - career perspective and family embeddedness approach. In a way it further steers earlier works which suggest viewing entrepreneurship from a career perspective and the role of fa-milial relations in the process of realizing entrepreneurship career. The thesis compares fa-milial relations with venture creation processes by a family member.The findings of the thesis show that family dynamics including the perception and expecta-tion of parents, siblings, and extended family members about business career influences the development, and formation of entrepreneurial career. The entrepreneur -family relational dynamics during the venturing process shows that mothers tend to be the most significant others in supporting the entrepreneurs’ career during the early stage of venturing, fathers come in the middle stage of the venturing. Moreover, the findings show relational tensions in the early stage of venturing, familial scaffolding during the startup stage and entrepreneurs’ increasing aspirations to become independent at the later stage of venturing. Because entre-preneurs live and mainly network among the family members; entrepreneurial career mainly takes part in a family setting confirming the role that family dynamics contributes to the tran-sition of a family member to entrepreneurial career. It proposes the understanding of the process of transitioning to entrepreneurial career as the process of individuation from family relations. The thesis argues that in an institutionally void and unconducive family setting to entrepreneurship, young entrepreneur’s motivation towards entrepreneurial career influ-ences the family context and fosters quick individuation and challenge the unconducive fami-ly setting toward business. The thesis contributes to the literature of career perspective of entrepreneurship and family embeddedness.