Mlotshwa, Semukele Hellen2024-09-132024-09-132022Mlotshwa, Semukele Hellen. (2022). A phenomenological study of female entrepreneurial identity, aspiration, and success in South Africa [ PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace.https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40759https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40759A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of Business Administration, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Johannesburg 2022Background: The rise of identity movements or politics may seem sudden in modern culture, revolutionary in a sense as the world witnesses the reordering of group and group affinity discourse from the #MeToo, #BLM to trans activism. Yet in academic milieu of disciplines such as entrepreneurship, traditional scholarship seems to be stunted in failure to accept that social narratives, group or tribal self-identification, definition and identity are as important in defining history just like any other underlying socio-cultural and economic forces. This is captured well in entrepreneurship scholarship where the discipline is still struggling to build a reliable definition of female entrepreneurship applicable to both developed and developing countries and its effect on their respective economies. There is no unified female entrepreneurship discourse nor a discursive space that effectively accommodate female entrepreneurship interest groups. South Africa as an emerging African economy has not be spared this anomaly where, researchers have paid little attention to women's contributions to socioeconomic well-being through entrepreneurial activity. Although there is a multitude of female-centric debates and policies, their application seems largely rhetorical further accentuating the fragmentation of the entrepreneurship with respect to women participation. This gives the impression that studying female entrepreneurs is the study of the “other”. It is these challenges that inspired this research to explore the phenomenon of female entrepreneurship specifically how they self-identify, set, or define their aspirations and what they consider to be entrepreneurial success. The study goes beyond the dominant quantifiable content of entrepreneurship but rather emphasises the meaning content of entrepreneurship (i.e., nature and characteristics) from female entrepreneurs’ experiences and perspectives of their entrepreneurial practices. Methods: Utilising semi-structured in-depth individual interviews, group meetings, business visits with participants, a qualitative study was conducted using a two-phased phenomenological approach with thirty-five female entrepreneurs in South Africa. The data was analysed in two phases: first, through summative analyses aided by ATLAS.ti version 9.1 data analysis software program and second phase focused on seven participants was through explorative, descriptive qualitative approach. Results: Key themes identified from the data analysis in the two-phased approach were: participative entrepreneurship; resilience and relationship-focused entrepreneurial practice; creativity, resource, and venture control; personal dimension, access to resources and growth; entrepreneurial role, influencers and professional autonomy; market acceptance, self-fulfilment, work-life balance, and financial achievement. Female entrepreneurs simultaneously build, balance, and manage a wide range of entrepreneurial ventures of varying sizes across sectors while maintain both role and social identities. They have diverse entrepreneurial aspirations for personal and collective growth, while defining entrepreneurial success more widely than the present subjective and objective measurements prevalent in extant literature. While others still see their entrepreneurial identities in the male-centric constructs, this phenomenological study illustrates that these generic and traditional male-centric constructs do not adequately captures female entrepreneurial experiences. There is a distinct exhibition of strong personality traits, a high need for achievement, determination as well as perseverance in pursuit of success broadly defined beyond bank balances and turn-over. Women entrepreneurs also express strong views on earning high returns and income to not only grow their business but support their employees, communities, themselves, and their families. Conclusion: Female entrepreneurs in the South African context do not seem to limit their entrepreneurial identities to those in extant definitions based on male-centric metrics. They aspire to build ventures, build and maintain entrepreneurial role identity but not in isolation from their other social identities such gender roles as daughters, sisters, mothers, partners, family builders and leaders, female role models and community leaders. Success is measured beyond the financial and allied subjective measures but is tied to other social identity constructs while accounting for role identity related outcomes such financial achievements, professional legitimacy and acknowledgement, and personal growth. Future studies should test the conceptual model and associated conceptual thresholds proposed in this study on the relationships between identity, aspirations, and perceptions of success by subjecting them to empirical tests. The study provided novel distinctive traits of female entrepreneurs that can provide researchers with improved and inclusive entrepreneurial identity constructs, new measures of entrepreneurial success beyond the dominance of financial super-profits focus which do not consider the other equally important societal measures such as gender equity, sustainability, societal impact, and inclusivity at all levels of entrepreneurship in society. The thesis closes by arguing that the discipline of entrepreneurship needs to be continuously creative, rather than reactive; problematisation of new issues such as addressing female identity, their respective aspirations and perceptions of what success looks like. Only then can the discipline of entrepreneurship continue to be relevant to the present with a future focus without the trap of relativisation of the discipline both in research and practiceen© 2022 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.Entrepreneurial identityAspirationSuccessGenderPhenomenologyUCTDSDG-8: Decent work and economic growthThesisUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg