Business as family, family as business: Female entrepreneurship in Kampala, Uganda

Recent years have seen increased interest in entrepreneurship beyond the narrow realm of the economic. This article advances contemporary debates on the relationship between entrepreneurship and family through a longitudinal study of the experiences of female entrepreneurs in Kampala, Uganda. Drawing on a four-year panel of life history interviews, we demonstrate the value of an ‘entrepreneurial life course’ perspective for understanding the ways in which social and familial relations facilitate female entrepreneurship at certain junctures and restrict it at others. This perspective complements the social embeddedness literature by foregrounds the temporal dimension of entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it illustrates the volatilities that characterise entrepreneurial life in urban African settings, challenging linear understandings of the entrepreneurial cycle.