Exploring the experience of flow by portfolio entrepreneurs

Abstract

Portfolio entrepreneurs are those individuals who currently have either minority or majority ownership stakes in two or more independent businesses that are either new, purchased and/or inherited. A portfolio entrepreneur owns multiple businesses at the same time. The focus of this study was to undertake research to determine the prevalence of experiencing flow for portfolio entrepreneurs as motivational drivers, and to ascertain why they decide to start multiple businesses. The findings in this research report were compared to the existing body of literature on portfolio entrepreneur s motivations and phycology of flow. This research project comprised of 12 in-depth interviews with portfolio entrepreneurs in South Africa. Portfolio entrepreneurs were interviewed face-to-face, in an unstructured format. The research found that portfolio entrepreneurs in South Africa experienced flow in their life and this experience led them to opening multiple businesses. The themes in the study were classified as the following : go all in, beauty of entrepreneurship, elevating people, embracing opportunities, fun and happiness; habits and mindsets, failure ignites experience of flow, journey as an entrepreneur; master of your own destiny, and working as an entrepreneur. Portfolio entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs appeared to have similar motivations, aside from their passion and values. Their economic motivations were found to be secondary to other motivations like developmental. There was sufficient diversity in the sample that included individuals from various locations in the country context of South Africa that influenced the results, however gender can be explored a bit more as the sample had one female. This was the first sample of portfolio entrepreneurs of its kind in South Africa and given the gaps in the literature, especially in South Africa, a few suggestions were made for future research.