Mompreneurship: factors behind entrepreneurship intentions during maternity leave

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 5 aims to achieve gender equality and women's empowerment (The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023). However, a component of gender equality, entrepreneurial activity by women, is far behind expected targets. Women are far less likely to start a business compared to men (Rosca et al., 2020), must exert more effort than men to successfully run their businesses (Cortis et al., 2022) and are even considered undesirable business partners in some societies (Chen et al., 2024). Even though female entrepreneurship contributes to economic independence for women, gender equality, economic diversification, and job creation and adds value for business and society at large (European Parliament, 2022), women still face a variety of economic, legal and social barriers including gender stereotypes, lack of access to capital and information, lower self-confidence and difficulties balancing work and family obligation (Rugina, 2019).

One way to overcome at least one of the family obligations that hinders female participation in economic activities, such as the temporary absence from the workforce during maternity leave, is through mompreneurship. Mompreneurship has the potential to play an important role in reconciling women's work and private lives. Mompreneurship is defined as the creation of a new business venture linked to the particular experience of having children by a woman who identifies as both a mother and a businesswoman and is primarily motivated by work-life balance (Richomme-Huet et al., 2013). Caring for dependent children has a positive effect on the probability that a woman is self-employed and the likelihood that she meets the norms of being both a good worker and mother (Besamusca, 2020). Women often gain greater confidence following the birth of a child, as they reassess their skills and seek to fulfil themselves professionally despite established stereotypes (Richomme-Huet et al., 2013).

Research on mompreneurship stems from the need to understand the work-life balance aspirations of mothers (Hudson Breen and Leung, 2020; Abdelsalam et al., 2021), gender roles and motherhood identities (Leung, 2011), the importance of mothers' entrepreneurial self-efficacy (Agnihotri and Bhattacharya, 2020), pervasive technological changes and women's use of information and communication technologies (Mayes et al., 2020; Malaquias et al., 2021), and community connections in social networking sites (Vershinina et al., 2022). Some studies within the field are limited to the context of a specific industry, such as the photography industry (Mayes et al., 2020) or the small-scale fishing sector (Gustavsson, 2021).

This study aims to uncover the intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors that determine women's intentions to engage in entrepreneurial activities during maternity leave. The theoretical basis of the study is the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 2020), which has been widely applied to predict and change behaviour, including behaviour related to entrepreneurial intentions. Specifically, this study examines how attitudes towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control influence the entrepreneurial intentions of mothers.

The structure of the article is as follows. First, a theoretical framework based on the theory of planned behaviour and research on mompreneurship is presented along with hypotheses. Next, the methodology and sample selection of the empirical study are described in detail. The results are then analysed and discussed before presenting the conclusions and implications of this study.

Female entrepreneurship can be described as a gender phenomenon that is closely related to family needs, is driven by opportunity or necessity, and is associated with the pursuit of various goals (not only economic) (d'Andria and Gabarret, 2017). Furthermore, entrepreneurship is fundamentally understood as an opportunity to develop women's unexploited potential (Serrano-Pascual and Carretero-García, 2022). Women entrepreneurs experience the juxtaposition of work and non-work life as conflicting or in synergy depending on their work or family centrality, motherhood stage, perceived support from spouse and family, and the stage of the business (Banu et al., 2025). In order to meet family needs, work-life balance, entrepreneurship could be for women as a positive alternative to the stressful professional world that affects family and personal life (Rodrigues et al., 2023). Although women generally perform traditional parental roles, being a business owner provides a lot of flexibility and confidence to mothers to come out of the typical gender role expectations and better integrate their work and family life (Banu et al., 2025). This has led to an increase in entrepreneurs/mothers who can be classified as mompreneurs, which are classified as one of the typologies of female entrepreneurs (Ratten, 2023).

Although research on mompreneurship (also known as mumpreneurship, momtrepreneurship, or mamapreneurship; Ekinsmyth, 2013) has not yet enjoyed a surge of popularity in the business literature, scholars have acknowledged its importance in advancing current knowledge on entrepreneurship by women with children (Richomme-Huet and Vial, 2014). Mompreneurship, a portmanteau of ‘mom' and ‘entrepreneurship' (Abdelsalam et al., 2021), brings entrepreneurship and motherhood together in the mompreneur identity (Lewis et al., 2022). As a sub-group of female entrepreneurs who also have children (Khan and Rowlands, 2018), mompreneurs are often presented as doing business ‘differently', where home and business are allies rather than in conflict (Lewis et al., 2022). This study follows the results of research (Richomme-Huet et al., 2013) and describes the mompreneurship as the creation of a new business venture by a woman who identifies as both a mother and a business woman, is motivated primarily by achieving work-life balance, and picks an opportunity linked to the particular experience of having children.

Mompreneurship, as a distinct form of female entrepreneurship, can be effectively analysed through the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which provides a valuable framework for understanding entrepreneurial activity among women, particularly mothers. The Theory of Planned Behaviour is one of the most widely applied theories in modelling early-stage entrepreneurship (Liu et al., 2022), focusing on the role of attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. In the context of female entrepreneurship, this theory has been extended with complementary factors to capture better the unique motivations and challenges faced by women. An individual's attitude towards a behaviour indicates the desirability of the behaviour from their perspective in terms of favourability or disfavourability (Ajzen, 2011). Subjective norms can be understood as support from close family, friends, and colleagues (Krueger et al., 2000; Truong et al., 2022). Perceived behavioural control refers to an individual's confidence and perception of the ease or difficulty involved in performing a given behaviour (Armitage and Conner, 2001; Huang-Saad et al., 2018). Entrepreneurial intention is the future plans to engage in entrepreneurial activity (Huang-Saad et al., 2018). Mompreneurship intention is thus the intention of women to be entrepreneurs once they become mothers and have added household responsibilities (Agnihotri and Bhattacharya, 2020). Based on these insights, mompreneurship intentions can be defined as the generation of business ideas, the consideration of their implementation possibilities, or the creation of a new business during women's maternity leave.

Many researchers have scrutinised the positive impact of entrepreneurial attitude on entrepreneurial intention (Kumar and Das, 2019; Yousaf et al., 2022; Truong et al., 2022). While Lihua (2022) highlights the impact of attitudes towards entrepreneurship on entrepreneurial intentions during their formative period, other research demonstrates that a positive attitude does not always result in entrepreneurial intentions (Liu et al., 2022). Entrepreneurial passion refers to an entrepreneur's devotion and enthusiasm for a proposed business venture (Chen et al., 2009). Passion is intense positive feelings for an activity relevant to one's identity (Cardon and Kirk, 2013; Warnick et al., 2018). For entrepreneurial passion, activities are related to starting and developing new ventures (Warnick et al., 2018) or identifying, inventing and exploring new opportunities (Cardon et al., 2013). A number of studies have shown that entrepreneurial passion is positively related to entrepreneurial intentions (Biraglia and Kadile, 2017; Liao et al., 2023; Kyriakopoulos et al., 2024). In other words, individuals with a high level of entrepreneurial passion are more likely to become entrepreneurs (Li et al., 2020). It is assumed that these findings are also relevant for mothers with entrepreneurial intentions, leading to the following hypotheses:

For both women and men, family support impacts self-employment and entrepreneurial intention (Verheul et al., 2006; Martins et al., 2023), but it is particularly crucial for women (Hudson Breen and Leung, 2020). As women become mothers, their positions and roles within the family change (Minola et al., 2016). For a mother implementing entrepreneurial intentions, integrating the family and entrepreneurial spheres constitutes an ongoing challenge and source of tension within her family (McGowan et al., 2011). This tension encourages negotiation and making arrangements based on the needs of both her children and the business (St-Arnaud and Giguère, 2018). The effect of family demands on entrepreneurship intention is not defined because although these demands are often the driving force for entrepreneurship, they can also limit the mompreneur's time and dedication, negatively impacting her success (Cabrera and Mauricio, 2017). As they strive to fulfil both their motherhood and work commitments, mompreneurs need both instrumental and emotional support from family members (Agnihotri and Bhattacharya, 2020). Instrumental support refers to assistance in the form of ideas or financial aid for business management issues (Arregle et al., 2007). Emotional support is a type of family social capital where family members encourage the mother in her entrepreneurship journey or provide emotional help in dealing with business problems (Eddleston and Powell, 2012). Thus, this study proposes the following hypothesis:

Perceived behavioural control is often associated with self-efficacy (McGee et al., 2009; Lortie and Castogiovanni, 2015) and fear of failure (Shabir and Ali, 2022) when developing entrepreneurship intentions. Self-efficacy can motivate individuals to engage in entrepreneurial projects and can affect the amount of effort people will allocate to complete their jobs (Martins et al., 2023). Self-efficacy links to competitiveness and risk-taking (Cabrera and Mauricio, 2017) and reflects an individual's confidence in their own ability to successfully create a new business, including being prepared to handle risks (Douglas, 2013). It has a positive impact on entrepreneurial intentions (Hamdani et al., 2023; Liao et al., 2023). Individuals with high entrepreneurial self-efficacy or a strong belief that they can succeed are more likely to have entrepreneurial intentions (Zhao et al., 2005). Mothers with high self-efficacy have more cognitive resources and actively pursue opportunities to overcome hurdles associated with caring for children at home and achieving their career goals (Agnihotri and Bhattacharya, 2020). Entrepreneurial fear of failure is a negative affective reaction that is based on cognitive appraisals of the potential for failure in the uncertain entrepreneurship environment (Cacciotti et al., 2020). It is a psychological factor inhibiting entrepreneurship (Sousa-Filho et al., 2023). The entrepreneurial intention–behaviour link weakens when the entrepreneurial fear of failure is high (Duong, 2022). However, fear of starting a business is not always enough to stop one's willingness to become an entrepreneur (Sousa-Filho et al., 2023). Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed to investigate the impact of perceived behavioural control on entrepreneurial intentions:

The institutional context, encompassing social attitudes, norms, culture, and gender roles, is critical for mompreneurship because women are responsible for the care of the household in most societies, while men are generally assigned the role of provider (Chávez Rivera et al., 2021). The perspective that the primary role of women is to look after the children and undertake household duties creates a stigma towards women who choose to work and is the root cause of several challenges facing female entrepreneurs (Khan and Rowlands, 2018). Women essentially perform multifunctional work, striving to meet numerous gender expectations – being mothers, wives or partners, and “supporters” without prioritising or compromising any of these positions (Gustavsson, 2021). Women often juggle entrepreneurial activity with other family-care activities and are frequently societally and personally driven to assume an unequal role with men in the domestic arena (Muntean, 2013). However, contrary to societal expectations, many mothers have successfully managed this challenge by balancing work and personal life, successfully developing their businesses (Agnihotri and Bhattacharya, 2020). The desire to pursue entrepreneurship is influenced by social structure, values, and gender stereotypes (ThéBaud, 2010). Women are frequently perceived as less competent and capable than men (Fiske et al., 2018), which may cause them to doubt their ability to start a business. Research shows that reducing obstacles related to stereotypes and increasing women's self-efficacy can enhance women's intentions to engage in the creation of high-growth enterprises (Sweida and Reichard, 2013). Therefore, the following hypotheses involving gender stereotypes are proposed:

The macro environment typically includes national policies, cultural, and economic influences, while the meso environment reflects regional support policies, services, and initiatives (Dopfer et al., 2004). Perceived social support is important because it can provide individuals with emotional and tangible resources, such as encouragement, advice, and assistance, that can help them cope with stress and overcome entrepreneurial challenges (Hamdani et al., 2023). The primary challenges female entrepreneurs face are gender-related issues, social and cultural obligations, and access to resources like financing and networks (Isaga, 2019). It is important to ensure that family, social, and tax policies are not discriminatory against female entrepreneurship (Rugina, 2019). Support from friends, business partners, and the government can also help women entrepreneurs overcome obstacles and gain market access (Hamdani et al., 2023). The study of female entrepreneurship requires focus on the specific contexts affecting women, such as motherhood (e.g. household characteristics and family context) and the meso-macro environment (e.g. expectations of society, cultural norms, intermediate structures, and institutions) (Richomme-Huet et al., 2013), which mediate the entrepreneurial activity of women in different ways (Brush et al., 2009). Social support received by mompreneurs sets the stage for their choice to enter self-employment and the associated process of opportunity recognition and exploitation process (Hudson Breen and Leung, 2020). The following hypotheses are proposed to explore the impact of societal support on attitudes towards mompreneurship and perceived behavioural control:

Research shows that entrepreneurship education at the university level has a positive impact on the development of students' human capital, attitudes toward entrepreneurship and intentions to engage in business (Elliott et al., 2021). Entrepreneurship education also helps women improve their perceptions of entrepreneurship and stimulates a desire to pursue an entrepreneurial career (Pergelova et al., 2023). Specifically, entrepreneurship education increases self-efficacy, which in turn can enhance the feasibility of entrepreneurship and improve one's perception of entrepreneurship (Pergelova et al., 2023). Entrepreneurial education and training have been identified as the most important factor to balance business, family and social issues (Isaga, 2019). The impact of education on entrepreneurship is often analysed from a gender perspective. Wilson et al. (2007) find that entrepreneurship education has a greater impact on women's entrepreneurial self-efficacy than on that of men. Similarly, Santos-Jaén et al. (2022) explain that the development of entrepreneurial competencies increases women's self-confidence. Meanwhile, Zhang et al. (2014) find that male entrepreneurship is higher than female entrepreneurship when all students receive entrepreneurship education. Thus, the following hypotheses are proposed:

Social connectedness is an attribute of the self that reflects cognitions of enduring interpersonal closeness with the social world (Lee et al., 2001). Research shows that male entrepreneurs typically pursue hierarchical networks focused on short-term interests, while women create emotional bonds and seek long-term, stronger relationships (Marlow, 2019). Family and social connections have the potential to both enhance and limit women's opportunities to start their own businesses (Manolova et al., 2008). Network support and recognition can help women embrace their preferred identity as an entrepreneur, create new business models through their daily work activities and strive for success (Richomme-Huet and Vial, 2014). These networks are especially important in countries with low per capita income (Crane, 2022). In such countries, female entrepreneurs are more likely to report knowing other entrepreneurs, which helps them understand and realise their entrepreneurial opportunities (Chávez Rivera et al., 2021). Female entrepreneurs seek social connections through informal networks, even in business, which is particularly important in times of crisis as these networks provide encouragement and support (Mohapatra and Roy, 2023). Social relationships build social capital by helping female entrepreneurs gain financial benefits, bridging information gaps (Wang et al., 2020), cultivating emotional and personal social support, providing encouragement and knowledge (Brooks et al., 2018), and building friendship ties (Bogren et al., 2013). The ability to seek encouragement and advice from others is crucial for business success, especially during challenging times (Khan and Rowlands, 2018). This study, therefore, presumes that communication with like-minded individuals is crucial for mompreneurship and proposes the following hypotheses:

The attitude towards entrepreneurship plays a substantial mediating role between entrepreneurial education, financial support, role models, and entrepreneurial intention (Saoula et al., 2025). Meanwhile, Kansheba and Wald (2022) have confirmed that the entrepreneurial attitude mediates the association between the entrepreneurial ecosystem quality and early-stage entrepreneurial activities. It is argued (Yesmin et al., 2024) that the entrepreneurial personal attitude mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial social support (support from the community or society) and entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, the mediation effect of entrepreneurial attitudes on the relationship between entrepreneurship education/learning and entrepreneurial intention can be found (Anjum et al., 2023; Aga and Singh, 2022; Yousaf et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2019). Therefore, we assume that attitude towards mompreneurship may have a mediating effect between extrinsic motivational factors and mompreneurship intentions:

Perceived behavioural control is a direct determinant of intention; it can also act as a mediator between entrepreneurial intention and psychological capital (Villanueva-Flores et al., 2023) or between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial learning/education (Zhang et al., 2019; Aga and Singh, 2022). Perceived behavioural control is often identified with self-efficacy, and the role of self-efficacy as a mediator between entrepreneurial intentions and external environmental factors is being investigated. Although the study (Al-Qadasi et al., 2023) showed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy did not play a mediating role in the relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and environmental/situational factors. However, the entrepreneurial self-efficacy has a strong mediating effect on the impact brought by the post-pandemic entrepreneurial environment on entrepreneurial intentions (Zhang and Huang, 2021). A large body of literature also states that entrepreneurial self-efficacy mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and individual extrinsic motivational factors. For instance, entrepreneurial self-efficacy plays a complete mediating role between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention (Wang et al., 2023; Wu et al., 2022; Yousaf et al., 2021). Based on the above description, it can be presumed that the perceived behavioural control may be a positive mediator between extrinsic motivational factors and mompreneurship intentions. Therefore, our last hypothesis is formulated as follows:

The proposed research model is presented in Figure 1.

Following the selection criteria of previous studies (Agnihotri and Bhattacharya, 2020), this study included women aged 26–54 years who had at least one child under the age of 12. Respondents were asked to recall their maternity leave and to answer a questionnaire about their business intentions at the time and their desire to start a business during their maternity leave. Lithuania served as an empirical basis for the research. As part of the European Union, Lithuania has similar gender differences to other EU countries, especially in the areas of high-potential entrepreneurship, access to finance, family care policies, digital inclusion and development.

The survey was conducted with the help of a public institution whose activities are related to entrepreneurial mothers. The institution consented to publish a message about the study and online questionnaire on its social networks, after being informed about the intentions and objectives of the study.

The questionnaire was developed based on related studies and measurement tools from the literature covering all the variables in this research. Modifications were made to the wording of measurement items to maintain the scope of this study. The items of the questionnaire were measured using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). The survey was carried out from April to May 2024 until responses were no longer received. The questionnaire was made available over the Internet, and participants were provided with an informed consent form. Respondents completed the survey via an online link. In total, 315 completed questionnaires were obtained. 315 respondents responded to the initial screening, and 298 responses were usable for further analysis. The data were analysed with structural equation modelling using SPSS 26 and SmartPLS 4.1 software.

The study employs validated scales. Mompreneurship intentions were measured using Thompson's (2009) widely used six-item scale of individual entrepreneurial intentions. Attitude towards mompreneurship was treated as consisting of two elements: entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial passion. Entrepreneurial attitude was measured using a three-item scale adapted from Liao et al. (2023). To measure entrepreneurial passion, four items measuring ‘passion for founding' were adapted from Cardon et al. (2013). Family support was assessed using a five-item Likert scale adapted from Truong et al. (2022). The measure of perceived behavioural control consisted of two elements: entrepreneurial self-efficacy (3-item scale, adopted from Shi et al., 2020) and fear of failure (7-item scale, adapted from Van Gelderen et al., 2015). Gender stereotypes about women were measured using Hamdani et al.'s (2023) 4-item scale. Perceived entrepreneurship education support was measured using six items on perceived educational support and three items on perceived concept development support based on Saeed et al. (2015). Societal support was measured using a 5-item scale adapted from Truong et al. (2022). Finally, social connectedness was measured with a 5-item scale based on Lee and Robbins (1995). All scale items used in the study are presented in  Annex.

In the current study, various independent, mediating, and control variables were utilized to examine the proposed relationships and test the conceptual model. The independent variables included extrinsic motivational factors, comprising four dimensions: Women's Gender Stereotype, Societal Support, Perceived Entrepreneurship Education Support, and Social Connectedness. In addition, Subjective Norms were also treated as an independent variable, which incorporated Family Support as a key component. Two mediating variables were employed in the model, each encompassing distinct dimensions. The first mediator, Perceived Behavioural Control, consisted of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Fear of Failure. The second mediator, Attitude Toward Mompreneurship, was represented by Entrepreneurial Attitude and Entrepreneurial Passion.' The dependent variable in this study was Mompreneurship Intentions. Furthermore, demographic variables such as education, family size, and age were included as control variables to account for their potential influence on the model outcomes.

The respondents were aged 26 to 54, with a majority between 30 and 45. Most respondents had one or two children, while only a few had three or more. Several of them were expecting a baby. The children's ages ranged from less than 1 year to 26 years. Moreover, multiple respondents held a master's degree, and the majority had university degrees. Business administration was the most common major. 92% of respondents lived with their partners. A substantial number of respondents work for a private company or a state-owned company. A few participants had their businesses or worked in other capacities.

Because data were collected from the survey questionnaire, multivariate normality testing was performed by web software (https://webpower.psychstat.org/models/kurtosis; Cain et al., 2017). Mardia's multivariate skewness coefficient was 6.70, while the kurtosis value was 124.28. These values were higher than the standardised values, indicating the non-normality of the data. Thus, the model was tested using bootstrapping, as suggested by Hair et al. (2019).

As the data were gathered from a single source, a full collinearity assessment test was performed to assess common method bias (Kock and Lynn, 2012). A dummy variable was created using the random function in SPSS, and all factors (i.e. independent and dependent variables) were regressed on the common variable. The results of the full collinearity test, presented in Table 1, show that the VIF values are below the threshold of 3.3, indicating that there is no collinearity.

Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was then applied to the multivariate data. It is a second-generation technique that provides more robust and comprehensive results when testing complex models. PLS SEM is an assumption-free, non-parametric test that is appropriate for non-normal data. The technique is also suitable for small sample sizes (Ng et al., 2021; Guenther et al., 2023). To ensure the robustness of the results, a bootstrapping procedure was conducted. 10,000 subsamples were employed, which is adequate even with relatively small samples, according to Hair et al. (2024).

The measurement model was tested through a two-step approach. In the first step, the instrument's reliability and validity were examined according to the guidelines of Hair et al. (2019). After that, the path analysis was performed for hypothesis testing. In the initial testing, CFA loadings, Cronbach's alpha, average variance extracted (AVE), and composite reliability (CR) were assessed. As shown in Table 2, the loadings of most items were above 0.708, although a few were slightly lower. However, these values are still acceptable, as some deviations are allowed in real-world situations without compromising the overall result (Morkūnas, 2022). AVE values were greater than 0.500, Cronbach's alpha values were higher than 0.700, and CR values were higher than 0.700, indicating that the model is reliable and adequate. Because the model contained higher-order constructs (HOC), including two scales with two dimensions, two-stage disjoint analyses were performed to ensure their reliability and validity (Sarstedt et al., 2019). The results of these analyses confirm that the constructs are valid and reliable.

Discriminant validity was assessed through the HTMT criterion (Henseler et al., 2015). Table 3 shows that all values were below the criterion of 0.95, indicating that respondents understood the distinct nature of each instrument and responded accordingly. Table 4 indicates that HOC discriminant validity was achieved, and the model was found to be valid and reliable.

Next, structural modelling was conducted for hypothesis testing. The results of hypothesis testing are presented in Figure 2 and summarised in Table 5.

Hypotheses H4a and H5a, regarding the impact of gender stereotypes about women on attitudes toward mompreneurship and perceived behavioural control, are supported. Societal support was found to have a positive impact on attitudes towards mompreneurship and perceived behavioural control. Perceived entrepreneurial education support has a significant positive impact on attitudes towards mompreneurship, but does not have a significant impact on perceived behavioural control. Social connectedness has a significant negative impact on attitudes towards mompreneurship, but not on perceived behavioural control.

Hypotheses H6 and H7 aimed to examine the mediating effects between Extrinsic Motivation Factors (EMF) and Mompreneurship Intentions (MI), specifically through the mediators Attitude Toward Mompreneurship and Perceived Behavioural Control. The findings revealed that Attitude Toward Mompreneurship significantly mediated the relationship between EMF and MI, thereby supporting Hypothesis H6. Conversely, Perceived Behavioural Control did not demonstrate a statistically significant mediating effect, and therefore, Hypothesis H7 was not supported.

Furthermore, Attitude Toward Mompreneurship, including its subdimensions Entrepreneurial Attitude, Entrepreneurial Passion, family support, and Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy, exhibited significant positive effects on mompreneurship intentions. In contrast, Fear of Failure had a significant negative impact, and Perceived Behavioural Control showed no significant direct influence on mompreneurship intentions.

Additionally, control variables such as education level, age, and family size were tested alongside the hypothesized model pathways. However, the analysis indicated that none of these control variables had a statistically significant effect on the outcomes.

Women often think about career changes or entrepreneurship during unique times in their lives, such as maternity leave (Morkūnas et al., 2024). When studying mompreneurship and its development, it is important to highlight which factors influence mothers' entrepreneurial intentions (Agnihotri and Bhattacharya, 2020). First, as many previous studies demonstrate (Kumar and Das, 2019; Yousaf et al., 2022), attitudes towards entrepreneurship have a significant positive influence on entrepreneurial intentions. This study similarly highlights the fact that both entrepreneurial passion (intrinsic enthusiasm and a willingness to act) and entrepreneurial attitude (developed under environmental influence) have a positive impact on mompreneurship intention. This aligns with the findings of recent studies on the significant effect of entrepreneurial passion on entrepreneurial intentions (Li et al., 2020; Liao et al., 2023). It can be argued that women with a positive entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial passion are more likely to consider starting or expanding a business, driven by their entrepreneurial mindset. However, it should be noted that a strong passion for entrepreneurship or a positive attitude towards business alone will be enough for mothers to consider possible entrepreneurial intentions.

Second, the results of this study confirm Agnihotri and Bhattacharya's (2020) findings that family support is related to entrepreneurial intentions and plays a crucial role in shaping mompreneurship intentions. Support from family and friends is an important factor for many women's entrepreneurial orientation and growth aspirations (Lugalla et al., 2024), and becomes even more relevant in the context of mompreneurship. A mother's perception that her close family is supportive of her entrepreneurial intentions, providing material and non-material support, frees mothers to think about possible mompreneurship intentions and business opportunities.

Third, perceived behavioural control, which consists of two dimensions – entrepreneurial self-efficacy and fear of failure – does not impact mompreneurship intentions. The results of this study are inconsistent with previous research suggesting that perceived behavioural control has a direct effect on emerging entrepreneurial intention (Zhao et al., 2005; Lihua, 2022; Truong et al., 2022). However, self-efficacy and fear of failure have an impact on mothers' entrepreneurial intentions, measuring their impact separately. These results are consistent with previous studies which show that entrepreneurial self-efficacy has a positive effect on entrepreneurial intention (Li et al., 2020; Liao et al., 2023; Martins et al., 2023) while fear of failure has a negative effect (Duong, 2022). Women even with only one of these characteristics (either high self-efficacy or low fear of failure) may think about entrepreneurial opportunities, especially at sensitive times such as during maternity leave or when raising young children.

Fourth, the view that the primary role of women is to care for children and perform other household duties creates a stigma against women who choose to work, which is a major cause of challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. Gender stereotyping results in women's business activities being undervalued and treated differently from those of men (Cabrera and Mauricio, 2017; Rugina, 2019). Our study confirmed that societal stereotypes about women's roles affect entrepreneurial intentions, negatively impacting attitudes towards mompreneurship and perceived behavioural control, which is consistent with the insights from Sweida and Reichard (2013). Female entrepreneurship can be strengthened by reducing barriers derived from stereotypes and increasing the autonomy of women.

Fifth, societal support positively influences attitudes towards mompreneurship and mothers' perceived behavioural control. Hamdani et al. (2023) similarly find that support from friends, business partners and the government can help female entrepreneurs overcome obstacles and start a business. Our study also confirmed the positive influence of social support on perceived behavioural control, one of the elements of which is self-efficacy, consistent with the findings of Bergman and McMullen (2022). The authors conclude that support influences not only self-efficacy but also entrepreneurial intentions.

Sixth, previous studies demonstrate that entrepreneurship education has a positive impact on students' attitudes towards entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intentions (Elliott et al., 2021). Entrepreneurship education seems to help women express positive attitudes towards mompreneurship, as confirmed in this study. Perceived entrepreneurship education support has a positive impact on attitudes towards mompreneurship, which is consistent with the findings of Truong et al. (2022) that education significantly affects personal attitudes. However, a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship does not necessarily lead to perceived behavioural control. This study did not confirm that perceived entrepreneurship education support has a positive effect on perceived behavioural control, which is inconsistent with Liao et al. (2023). This study confirmed that entrepreneurship education may have a smaller effect on women's entrepreneurship, consistent with Zhang et al. (2014), who found that when all students receive entrepreneurship education, male entrepreneurship is higher than female entrepreneurship.

Seventh, social connectedness is an important aspect of mothers' attitudes towards entrepreneurship and their ability to start a business. Family and social connections can both enhance and limit women's opportunities to start their own businesses (Manolova et al., 2008). The results of this study show that a lack of social connections negatively influences attitudes towards mompreneurship. This is consistent with Ekinsmyth's (2011) finding that mothers' spaces and places, families, homes, neighbourhoods, communities, social relationships, identities, and performances played out within those locations are the key factors framing the entrepreneurial activities of women. At the same time, the results of our study also show that a lack of social connections does not negatively influence perceived behavioural control (i.e. self-efficacy). This partly coincides with Yuen and Chan's (2022) study showing that social connections indirectly affect students' career self-efficacy.

The examination of the mediation effect showed that attitude towards mompreneurship significantly mediated the relationship between extrinsic motivational factors and mompreneurship intentions. Meanwhile, it was found that perceived behavioural control had no significant mediating effect between extrinsic motivational factors and mompreneurship intentions.

This study explores the factors of mompreneurship, i.e. what motivates women to consider becoming entrepreneurs during maternity leave. The results of this study show that women who have a highly supportive environmentally shaped attitude towards entrepreneurship and an Inner Passion/Willingness to start a business think about entrepreneurial intentions during their maternity Leave. At the same time, when mothers perceive the support of their family, their intentions to become mompreneurs are higher, as this would allow them to balance work and personal life effectively. Also, attitudes towards mompreneurship act as a mediator between extrinsic motivational factors and mompreneurship intentions. Meanwhile, some interesting findings on the impact of perceived behavioural control were revealed by this study. Perceived behavioural control has no significant mediating effect between extrinsic motivational factors and maternal intentions. The results of this study also showed that mothers' perceptions of the ease or difficulty of mompreneurial intentions (perceived behavioural control) are not directly influenced by perceived educational support and social connectedness.

This study strongly underlines that reducing gender stereotypes and increasing societal support can contribute to promoting mompreneurship. The highlighted role of societal support and gender stereotypes in shaping attitude towards mompreneurship and perceived behavioural control points in a clear direction for the promotion of mompreneurship (e.g. through various women's organisations), and also provides additional avenues for research (i.e. how various thematic women's organisations, e.g. mothers' organisations, student organisations, can contribute to the phenomenon of mothers' entrepreneurship).

This study makes theoretical contributions to research on female entrepreneurship in the context of motherhood. First, this study contributes to the development of quantitative research. Since most research on this topic has been qualitative in nature, our study expands the understanding of the factors and relationships surrounding mompreneurship. Second, additional insights were gained into the factors that influence the formation of mompreneurship intentions according to the theory of planned behaviour. The study strengthens the links between mothers' entrepreneurial passion, self-efficacy, fear of failure, family support and entrepreneurial intentions. Thirdly, this research highlights the importance of extrinsic motivational factors in shaping women's entrepreneurial intentions in the context of motherhood. While entrepreneurship is typically considered a manifestation of intrinsic motivation—where extrinsic factors play only a supportive role (Bygrave et al., 2024)—this study clearly conceptualizes and delineates the notion of mompreneurship, which we argue is driven more by extrinsic motivational factors than intrinsic ones. Nonetheless, we acknowledge that intrinsic motivation also plays an important role in shaping mompreneurial intentions.

The findings of this study have several important policy implications. First, educational institutions could promote entrepreneurship by inviting more female entrepreneurs to share their career planning and entrepreneurship stories, as research shows that this contributes to a more positive attitude towards entrepreneurship among female students. We also recommend that educational institutions increase their focus on training students to network. This could help increase social communication and connections among potential business developers, broaden students' knowledge of how to attract contacts who can offer career (and business) resources, and help female students find peers in the context of mompreneurship.

Second, in order to reduce the influence of informal factors – i.e. stereotypes – it would be necessary for women entrepreneurial intentions to make greater use of long-term communication activities aimed at the general public and at changing established attitudes; and to carry out periodic educational activities aimed at educating groups that are directly involved in the shaping of public opinion (i.e. journalists and other media professionals) on the subject of gender equality. To bring about a rapid change in public tolerance of gender stereotypes, public-opinion-forming tools, such as information campaigns, should be designed to promote women's participation in the economy, society, politics, sport, health, the arts, sciences and all other levels of society, and to encourage a more positive attitude towards men's involvement in family life. Active external communication can also be useful in showcasing societal support of mompreneurship and introducing mothers who are thinking of embarking on entrepreneurial ventures during their maternity leave or while raising their children to existing opportunities for tangible and intangible support.

Third, government and non-governmental support for mompreneurship can help women to create and develop their own businesses. Such support could include a favourable maternity leave policy focused on the needs of mothers, as well as support related to strengthening mothers' social connectedness. Support from various governmental and non-governmental organizations could include the creation of platforms, international forums, as well as the organization of international training focused on mothers (the transfer of good practices from other countries). This would create conditions for mothers to receive full information about investors, potential partners, business start-up and development, and to establish useful business contacts. The government could support women entrepreneurs by subsidizing micro-entrepreneurs, reducing bureaucracy in company formation, investing in infrastructure, and providing care services for children and the elderly.

This study has some limitations that require caution when interpreting the results. However, these limitations may also be useful in providing directions for future studies. First, all measurements in this study are based on self-reported data and represent the subjective perceptions of respondents. Second, the indirect relationship between extrinsic motivational factors and mompreneurship intentions is a new meta-analytical topic that requires further analysis. More research is needed to understand what other extrinsic motivational factors may lead to mompreneurship intentions, and how they do so. Third, given the dependence of entrepreneurial intentions and maternity leave regulations on the national context, future studies should extend the sample to other populations and preferably include different countries in the same survey. Fourth, extrinsic factors such as social connectedness, perceived educational support, and societal support, as well as factors such as family support, self-efficacy, and attitudes toward mompreneurship, can be considered as pull factors for mompreneurship. However, this requires further research, as pull and push factors are another relevant angle of mompreneurship intentions research that was not analysed in this study. Finally, another area for future research may be the challenges men face as fathers when dealing with life or career changes. There is no comprehensive research on whether fatherhood influences men's entrepreneurial intentions or career changes. Further research can also analyse career and life perspectives in the context of dadpreneurs.