Why does individual learning matter? Young women entrepreneurs and small enterprises in Peru

Drawing on self-determination theory, this study examines why individual learning becomes significant or insignificant in the entrepreneurial trajectories of young women in Peru. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 women entrepreneurs aged 18 to 34, and data were analysed using Miles and Huberman’s systematic coding procedures. Findings show that individual learning is not uniformly salient but becomes important under motivational tensions involving competence, autonomy, and entrepreneurial legitimacy. Three mechanisms explain this variation: managing fears of uncertainty, failure, and performance expectations; establishing and signalling entrepreneurial competence where women’s capabilities are questioned; and compensating for educational gaps while supporting problem solving and self-directed adaptation. Entrepreneurial learning is therefore shaped by business demands as well as gendered and structural conditions influencing motivation and legitimacy. The study contributes by showing that individual learning is motivationally contingent rather than universal and by extending self-determination theory to young women’s entrepreneurship in an underexamined emerging economy.