Organization Behavior

Methodology

Motivational factors in a push-pull theory of entrepreneurship:

This exploratory study uses a gender comparative approach in semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with 75 entrepreneurs (28 women and 47 men). The interview schedule was devised after a review of the literature and was sent to participants prior to the interviews. The unit of analysis is the entrepreneur. The selection process was based on entrepreneurs who met the definition of an entrepreneur, who had started their businesses no longer than ten years prior. Interviews were held in five of New Zealand’s largest cities – Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill.

Findings – Findings suggest that both women and men appeared similarly motivated by a combination of push and pull factors. Three gender differences were found in the incidence of motivations: women were more influenced by a desire for independence; women considered their children as motivators more so than did men; men were influenced more by job dissatisfaction than were women.

Pull Factors: As illustrated in Table II, five pull factors were found to be important motivators for entrepreneurship. Two factors were discussed more frequently than others – independence and money. The most often mentioned factor for both men and women was a desire for independence. This finding mirrors prior studies in this respect; but when looking at gender, more women were motivated by independence than were men. The second most prevalent pull factor was monetary motivations. Table II shows similarities between women and men’s views on monetary motivations. A desire for a challenge/need for achievement has studies have found women are more motivated than men by a desire for a challenge, later result which shows men

are more motivated than women by meeting new challenges. Seeing an opportunity was not a motivator that emerged in many instances in this paper (five men and no women). Alongside these two motivators,...