The Mothers’ Role in the Children’s Choice of a Career in Entrepreneurship: An Examination of Mothers in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Making the choice of individuals to choose a career in self-employment is critical as an entrepreneur contributing to a county’s economy. Entrepreneurship as a choice is influenced by many contemporaneous variables such as household wealth, gender, spouse's education, family composition, along with health. This paper examined the mothers’ influence on the choice of individuals to engage in entrepreneurship. Even though many studies have been conducted in understanding the various factors that prevent an individual from becoming an entrepreneur limited studies have been conducted in understanding the mother’s contribution to creating or crushing entrepreneurial mind set of a child especially in the Sri Lankan context. Having understood that a qualitative research study supported by twenty in-depth interviews were conducted among mothers and children to explore their influence on the child’s choice of becoming an entrepreneur. The findings imply that there is a significant impact of a mother on the probability of an individual to become an entrepreneur. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Education, Entrepreneurial Intention, Entrepreneurial Orientation, Mothers’ Influence.