The Influence of Family Background and Motivation on Entrepreneurship Development in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The research sought to determine how family background and motivation influence entrepreneurship development in Zimbabwe. Purposive sampling was used to select 200 family business entrepreneurs. The study confirms that family social class is an important determinant of entrepreneurial decision while having a village childhood background is not a barrier to entrepreneurship entry. Company founders tended to be well-educated. On the other hand, entrepreneurs were found to be motivated by the need for self -realization and economic security, the need for greater business achievement, the need for institutional power, and need for social capital factor. However, we find no tendency for the motivators driving family business formation to change when economic conditions changes. We recommend for an education policy that emphasise more on developing entrepreneurship talent and that government make an attempt to ensure an enabling environment for entrepreneurship development by maintaining the socioeconomic (middle) class. There is also need for a well-crafted family entrepreneurship development program to support family business succession planning for sustainable family entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe.