«I Gave Birth and Decided...»: Mechanics of Choosing Entrepreneurial Strategies among Russian Mothers

Abstract

The study regards the mechanics of decision-making about entrepreneurial practices and factors defining the choice of various entrepreneurial strategies by Russian women raising young children. Theoretically, the study relies on the provisions of modern social topology in the reading of John Law and the assemblage theory based on works by Manuel DeLanda and Igor Krasavin. These grounds make it possible to consider maternal entrepreneurship in terms of variable self-organization, implying changes in the relations, objectivity, and the chronotope of a woman. The authors refer to the concept of alienation, since the general orientation towards entrepreneurial activity and the tactics of projects implemented by mothers are associated with the choice in favor of full production cycles (control over the means of production, product sales and appropriation of the results of activity), and the practices of monetization have emancipatory potential.

Empirically, the study bases on the cases of entrepreneurial stories of mothers, materials from maternal forums and communities (248 relevant statements of mothers), and in-depth interviews with mothers (n = 20, Sverdlovsk region). Data was collected in March 2022 — May 2023. The analysis of these data allowed the authors to reveal a repertoire of key entrepreneurial practices by sphere, degree of organization, and forms of implementation, to outline changes in the chronotope of mothers, to list key motives for maternal entrepreneurship, and to identify two most common entrepreneurial strategies. These are artisanal (careful) stategy, characterized by localism, arrhythmicity, attention to the product and its production procedures, low investment, and high comfort, and managerial (brave) strategy, focused on organizational processes, profit growth, investments, and market expansion. The choice of entrepreneurial activity is determined by the to balance employment and family, and the desire to overcome complex alienation. Factors such as institutional conditions, household support, and nurturing environment can influence the forms of entrepreneurship in different ways. However, the intensity of entrepreneurship is a matter of choice rather than necessity, and it is consciously regulated by mothers. The paper describes the features fundamental to the phenomenon of maternal entrepreneurship in Russia, namely, the individual-problematic nature of entrepreneurial practices, their swiftness, process orientation, intuitiveness, focus on control of all stages of the entrepreneurial cycle, and social orientation of activity.

Acknowledgments. The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation. Project No. 22-28-00636 «Modern "non-maternal" practices of young mothers: repertoire, potential and social risk».