Neighbourhoods, entrepreneurship and embeddedness: What can we learn from ‘the Mumpreneur’?

Neighbourhoods, entrepreneurship and embeddedness: What can we learn
from ‘the Mumpreneur’?
Carol Ekinsmyth, Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth
Abstract
This paper will argue for a re-conception of entrepreneurship as an activity that
can be nested and nourished within; first, the spatial realm of the residential
neighbourhood and second, the social realm of motherhood. It will argue that we
need to focus on ‘family spaces’ in order to gain new understandings of the
contexts within which entrepreneurial creativity can occur. Through the figure of
‘the mumpreneur’ (Ekinsmyth 2013a), I will demonstrate how the spaces and
places of motherhood; the families, homes, neighbourhoods, communities and
social networks; can be important incubators for new business. Space (timespace coordination) and place (the material, institutional and moral constituents
of neighbourhoods and homes) play a key role in many mothers’ decisions to
become business owners and in the businesses they construct (Ekinsmyth
2013b).
Places differ in their offerings of resources necessary for the building of a vibrant
local community of businesses. Equally, once established, such vibrancy changes
the neighbourhoods where it occurs. The paper will utilize an embeddedness
perspective to consider the determinants and outcomes of neighbourhood
vibrancy for new business incubation and growth. Based upon the contention
that mumpreneur businesses offer up particular clarity on processes important
in home-based business, this specific form of entrepreneurship is offered as a
case-study of these wider processes.