The benefits of having an entrepreneur-mother: Influence of mother's entrepreneurial status on human capital formation among children

Wenchao Li and Di Tong

Journal of Business Venturing, 2023, vol. 38, issue 6

Abstract: Prior research shows that childcare is a unique driver for female entrepreneurship, as entrepreneurship allows women to increase time allocation on child supervision. Yet, whether female entrepreneurship actually promotes childrearing outcomes remains contentious in extant literature. This study focuses on child human capital formation as a key childrearing outcome. Drawing on the occupational inheritance literature, we suggest that, in addition to supervision, entrepreneur-mothers may foster child human capital formation through value transmission—in particular, transmitting self-direction values to children. Using nationally representative data from China, we find that children with entrepreneur-mothers exhibit better human capital formation outcomes—especially when they are younger and female. We further show that both supervision and value transmission are present, with the latter being a more important mechanism. Reconciling conflicting views in the literature, our study has both theoretical and practical implications.

Keywords: Female entrepreneurship; Child human capital formation; Childrearing; Family embeddedness perspective; Value transmission (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbvent:v:38:y:2023:i:6:s0883902623000435

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2023.106329

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