Running their own show: Malaysian women entrepreneurs’ kaleidoscope careers

Abstract

PurposeConsiderable research has been conducted to highlight women's career decisions to opt-out of corporate positions, but little is said about those who leave to become entrepreneurs. The purpose of this paper is to theorize kaleidoscope career parameters in relation to entrepreneurship stages and demonstrate the role of macro-national context (i.e. government initiatives and cultural practices) in women entrepreneurs' career choices.Design/methodology/approachThe authors interviewed 34 Malaysian women entrepreneurs (MWEs) who were established in their careers and explored the following two research questions: (1) what career parameters are prioritized at different entrepreneurship stages? and (2) how does macro-national context influence women entrepreneurs' careers?FindingsAdopting a kaleidoscope career lens, the authors show that authenticity was prioritized during the initial entrepreneurship stage, while balance and challenge were prioritized during the establishment and business advancement stages, respectively. The authors demonstrate that government support was conducive to women's decision to opt-in and stay in the entrepreneurship path. The findings also denote that cultural practices facilitated women's pursuit of entrepreneurship by encouraging family members to support women entrepreneurs in their career choices and actions.Originality/valueThe qualitative approach enabled us to specify the context-specific meaning women entrepreneurs in our study associated with authenticity, balance, and challenge. In doing so, this research extends the kaleidoscope career model to better understand women's career patterns at different entrepreneurship stages.

Sustainable Growth of Women-owned Business in the Stingless bee Industry of Malaysia

“…For illustration, the two sub themes in reality -operating my personal show and performing great -were not potential, not including the presence of encouraging corporate and household systems. Told by our results, hopeful and current lady industrialists in Malaysia must be conscious regarding and preserving contact to encourage systems to maintain their travels (Au et al, 2021).…”

When Work Doesn’t Work: An Alternative Framework to Examine Cognitive Factors in Employment-Entrepreneurship Transitions

“…The first author then coded the remaining 48 articles. Finally, building on literature that has used the KCM to examine the role of cognitions in career transitions (e.g., Au et al, 2021;Spurk et al, 2019;Sullivan et al, 2007), we deductively categorized the 23 cognitive factors identified in these 78 articles into the three parameters (i.e., need for authenticity, balance, and challenge) of the KCM.…”

“…Two articles in our review that have employed the KCM illustrate its potential. First, Au et al (2021) used a qualitative approach to show that women prioritize authenticity when entering entrepreneurship, but the KCM parameters of balance and challenge become more salient during the establishment and business advancement stages, respectively. Second, using a multigenerational sample, Sullivan et al (2007) found considerable variance in the forces that drive individuals into entrepreneurship, with Generation Xers prioritizing authenticity and balance more than Baby Boomers.…”

Women’s Careers in a Patriarchal Context: Through the Lens of the Kaleidoscope Career Model

“…While the KCM is a contemporary framework to study women's careers, its primary focus to date on analyzing the careers of US professional workers and incorporating only socially privileged groups in constructing study samples leaves open important avenues for future research. The KCM has been empirically applied in only a few countries outside the United States to study women's careers: Australia (Clarke, 2015;Howes & Goodman-Delahunty, 2015;O'Neill & Jepsen, 2019), Greece (Mouratidou & Grabarski, 2021), Ireland (Grady & McCarthy, 2008;O'Connor & Crowley-Henry, 2020), Japan (Futagami & Helms, 2009), Kazakhstan (Kuzhabekova & Lee, 2018), Malaysia (Au et al, 2021), New Zealand (Elley-Brown et al, 2018;Hurst et al, 2018;Shaw & Leberman, 2015), and South Africa (Koekemoer & Crafford, 2019). Most of these KCM studies have also incorporated only socially privileged groups in their study samples.…”