How entrepreneurs achieve purpose beyond profit: the case of women entrepreneurs in Nigeria

Harry G. Barkema, Uta Bindl and Lamees Tanveer

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper investigates how entrepreneurs achieve a sense of purpose or, more precisely, eudaimonic well-being—the experience of a good and meaningful life. We explore this in the context of women entrepreneurs participating in a business training program in Nigeria. Specifically, we conduct mixed-methods research, starting with an inductive qualitative Study 1 of what eudaimonic well-being means for these entrepreneurs. We find that, in the context of their enterprises, eudaimonic well-being implies opportunities to experience self-cultivation, mastery, social recognition, and to benefit others in the community. Unexpectedly, the women in our study also experience eudaimonic well-being related to their households. These initial insights inform theory in Study 2 on how enterprise-related learning (i.e., acquiring and assimilating knowledge regarding the enterprise) and household-related learning (acquiring and assimilating knowledge regarding the household) influence their eudaimonic well-being, itself driven by strong social ties with other women entrepreneurs in the training program. Hypotheses testing through a quantitative study of 484 women entrepreneurs in Nigeria over time corroborates the theory. Our research provides a contextualized perspective of “purpose” in entrepreneurship and how to achieve it: by developing strong social ties, enabling enterprise- and household-related learning, women entrepreneurs in our context initiate greater eudaimonic well-being, beyond improving firm performance.

Keywords: social psychology; organizational learning; structural modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2024-05-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Organization Science, 1, May, 2024, 35(3), pp. 1042 - 1071. ISSN: 1047-7039

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