Women's organizational exodus to entrepreneurship: Self-reported motivations and correlates with success

This study examines the reasons 129 women executives and professionals left large organizations to become entrepreneurs and how they measure success. Findings indicate that the women's most important entrepreneurial motivations were the desire for challenge and self-determination and the desire to balance family and work responsibilities. Also important were blocks to career advancement in large organizations, including discrimination, and organizational dynamics. These entrepreneurs measure success in terms of self-fulfillment and goal achievement. Profits and business growth, while important, were less substantial measures of their success. Motivation to become entrepreneurs was related to the criteria the women used to measure their success.