What motivates people to become entrepreneurs? : Everyday Entrepreneurship: A Scope to Practice Human Agency, An opportunity to be Socially Included.

Sammanfattning: When highly successful entrepreneurs with big technology-based ideas are at the center of the academic and business discussions, this research concentrated on exploring the motivations of everyday entrepreneurs in Malmö. Most of the time everyday entrepreneurs are not considered to be worthy of observation, analysis or an inspiration for others. As they seem far away from being highly financially successful, curiosity was, if not for a big-scale profitable business, then why did they become entrepreneurs? The psychological aspects of the entrepreneurial decision-making process were explored during this research, as „motivation‟is at the heart of this thesis. Researchers have conducted extensive studies on psychological traits that separates entrepreneurs from general people. 4 most discussed indicators of entrepreneurial motivation were employed in this study as a foundational framework to understand the psychology of everyday entrepreneurs. Additionally, the theory of storytellingwas the tool for the interviewees to express themselves and facilitator of critical thinking for the researcher. Stories of 17 everyday entrepreneurs in Malmö is the basis of this research. This is a qualitative study conducted with semi-structured interviews standing on the philosophy of social constructivism. Connections between indicators of entrepreneurial motivation and the core features of human agency was established from the collected empirical data. Studying previous contexts of these everyday entrepreneurs and the journey of their becoming self-employed revealed their status regarding social exclusion and how they created opportunities to be socially included. The significance of human agency in entrepreneurial motivation studies and a new perspective of social exclusion in the light of human agency is situated at the departure of this thesis.