Katia Richomme-Huet

Mumpreneurship: a new concept for an old phenomenon?

While mumpreneurship – entrepreneurship by mothers, is not a new phenomenon, it represents a new concept that is still in its infancy in need of a theoretical definition backed up by empirical validation. We review the emerging mumpreneurship literature, frame it with literature on women entrepreneurship, and define mumpreneurship as the creation of a new business venture by a woman who identifies as both a mother and a business woman, is motivated primarily by achieving work-life balance, and picks an opportunity linked to the particular experience of having children. By way of a quantitative study, we first validate that mother entrepreneurs present characteristics that are significantly different, and therefore constitute a sub-group of entrepreneurs. Additionally, in-depth interviews of mumpreneurs support the definition in terms of identity, motivation and opportunity recognition. We conclude that mumpreneurship constitutes a strong affirmative action in terms of her identity and dual role in society.

What Sustainable Entrepreneurship Looks Like: An Exploratory Study from a Student Perspective

Despite growing interest in social, green, and sustainable entrepreneurship, there are few education and training programmes that address the needs of sustainably motivated individuals. This chapter reports the results of a study of 36 students who have taken a course on ‘Entrepreneurship, the green economy, and corporate social responsibility’. The study identifies a significant gap in this new training and the perception of the students in their capacity as potential sustainable entrepreneurs.

Women entrepreneurs in France

Despite supposedly supportive institutions and quasi-gender equality in employment rate, only 30% of French entrepreneurs are women. Using the 5Ms framework, we illustrate and explain the entrepreneurship gender gap in the French institutional context. To this end, we worked with a quantitative study using the large SINE database, which contains information on 48,251 new entrepreneurs. Although women are still mostly confined to traditionally gendered sectors and start smaller projects despite seemingly unconstrained access to finance, they outperform men in terms of management but fail to get outside support. However, mothers conversely struggle to get finance but innovate in sales, products and service. Our results call for a redefinition of classical concepts and measurements in entrepreneurship.