Principal Topic

Mother/daughter work has been largely ignored in entrepreneurship research. Systemic devaluation of women’s work is sustained by the prevailing norms of entrepreneurship research methodologies which are biased in favour of large sample sizes, standardized questionnaires, quantifiable outcomes, and an emphasis on technology-based, growth-oriented, profit-driven ventures. Family business research, the archetypal entrepreneurial incubator, is fixated on the father-son relationship. Feminist methodologies help to deconstruct this androcentric worldview. By according M/D enterprises their rightful economic status, the entrepreneurial paradigm will be positively enlarged.

Method

This study hypothesized that M/D businesses exist in considerable numbers but can be found and effectively studied only by using alternative research methodologies. Detailed case histories of a small sample of M/D businesses in Canada and Botswana, collected by an open-ended ethnographic interview protocol, were used as a methodology sympathetic to the recovery of the M/D voice into the entrepreneurship dialogue.

Results and Implications

Data collection and analysis are ongoing but preliminary findings are provocative in several areas. The complex motivations for M/D venture formation add richness to push-pull theories. Distinctive leadership and decision-making behaviours offer sympathetic role models to future generations. Close study of the strength and directionality of M/D mentoring relationships may promote constructive alternatives to the combative father-son dyad. M/D self-ascribed success criterion challenge the conventional entrepreneurial vocabulary. However, the methodology chosen is not without its problems. Bias-free interview processes are difficult to achieve and the output (lengthy tapes) is not readily susceptible to factor analysis and statistical tabulation. A larger data set and further cross-cultural comparisons are planned in the next phase of study.

CONTACT: Kathryn Campbell, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada, K9J 7B8; (T) 705-748-1011 ext. 1603; (F) 705-748-1409; KCampbell@TrentU.CA