Journal Article by Jan-Philipp Ahrens and Baris Istipliler is published at Small Business Economics (VHB: B) with Open Access license

Entrepreneurship research increasingly recognizes marriage as a crucial resource for fostering long-term commitment to entrepreneurial ventures. Simultaneously, family scholars emphasize the deinstitutionalization of marriage in many countries, indicating a decline in the importance of formalized and enduring companionship.

This study posits that entrenched ideological positions in entrepreneurship studies on marriage might potentially obscure the more complex reality of entrepreneurs' marital norms. In line with these conjectures, representative panel data from Germany demonstrates a substantial heterogeneity among marriage norms internalized by entrepreneurs in various contexts. On average, entrepreneurs are less likely to internalize companion marriage norms compared to non-entrepreneurs. However, family entrepreneurs show a significantly higher likelihood of internalizing companion marriage norms than rest of the entrepreneurs.

The study provides new insights into the link between marriage norms and entrepreneurship, opening up promising new areas of inquiry regarding social norms and entrepreneurial activity. It is published with an Open Access license agreement and can be accessed for free under the following link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-023-00832-9