The Integration of Maternal Identity in the Entrepreneurial Process: A Study of Mompreneurs in Urban China

Abstract

This thesis explores how maternal identity shapes and transforms entrepreneurship in Chinese urban mompreneurs. Using Identity Theory, Social Identity Theory, and Self-Identity Theory, this research investigates how moms negotiate and integrate their roles as mothers and entrepreneurs in practice. Using a qualitative design with semi-structured interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, data collected from urban Chinese settings indicate that maternal identity is not always constraining but also serves as an influential driver of opportunity recognition, venture creation, and business growth. Mompreneurs reinterpret everyday caregiving problems as avenues of distinctive market insight, invent flexible, family-orientated business models, and cultivate leadership qualities centred on empathy and grit. Whereas mainstream entrepreneurial theory tends to focus on formal networks and capital-based strategies, this work shows that caregiving experience and embedded culture can serve as sources of innovative business practice. Within urban China, where high growth is coupled with long-standing expectations of family roles, mompreneurs negotiate role conflicts through adaptive identity negotiation. This research contributes to entrepreneurial theorising by applying identity-based theories to a non-Western context and presents actionable recommendations to policymakers and supporting organisations looking to promote more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems.