“Peru is an Entrepreneurial Country”: The Influence of Social Legitimacy of Entrepreneurship on the Decision to Become an Entrepreneur. An Inductive Study of Formal Microentrepreneurs in Lima, Peru

Abstract

This paper studies how the social legitimacy of entrepreneurship (SLE) affects the decision to become an entrepreneur in a sample of 12 formal microentrepreneurs from Lima (Peru). Firstly, this paper finds the main three drivers of SLE to be the positive social representations of entrepreneurship, the existence of entrepreneurial role models, and the perceived prevalence of entrepreneurship in Peru. Secondly, it finds that SLE affected the decision to become an entrepreneur in the sample by increasing their perceived desirability of entrepreneurship through three main mechanisms: by creating in them a positive awareness of the entrepreneurial career path, by enabling their entrepreneurial personality traits, and by increasing their readiness to participate in institutional support systems for entrepreneurship. Finally, the results are placed into an integrative model which adapts Krueger’s (2000) framework of entrepreneurial intentions, from theory of planned behaviour to better explain the findings in the sample.