Abstract

This paper uses a qualitative approach to investigate the differences between mother and father entrepreneurs in terms of how they manage their companies and approach their careers and personal lives. Relying on constructivist and feminist theories, it proposes a theoretical model of parent entrepreneur identity and evaluates how this identity relates to demographic attributes, network attributes, and self-reported measures of success. Results of this work indicate that there are many similarities among mother and father entrepreneurs but also some important differences. This study contributes to a growing body of knowledge surrounding the topic of gender and entrepreneurism. It is the first study to explicitly measure and evaluate the networks of parent entrepreneurs.