EXAMINING MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS IN LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Entrepreneurial motivation research mostly examines the entrepreneur's goals and motivations to create wealth, create social value and make a living based on the income they generate. The aim of this research is to investigate the motivation sources of a new type of entrepreneur called lifestyle entrepreneurs (LE). Literature on LE have stated that they are individuals who enjoy doing the job they love or are in that place for this job and prioritize the creation and consumption of the opportunities their enterprises generate. In this article, the motivation sources of the founders of 22 lifestyle entrepreneurs located in Türkiye were examined. The activities they have focused on and carried out since the day they were founded and their motivations for their establishment purposes were discussed with qualitative methods. The findings of this study reveals that the motivations that influence lifestyle entrepreneurship are in search of self-actualization and authenticity, acting with social transformation and responsibility, emphasizing entrepreneurial motivations and processes, trying to balance work and life, psychodynamic motivations and emotional compensation, aesthetics, experience and desire for high life.