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Understanding belonging provides a better insight into the structural, political, cultural and gendered elements of entrepreneurship. This paper aims to focus on Mexican female entrepreneurs’ (MFE) experiences in managing material and affective aspects of entrepreneurial belonging during the start-up and transition phase to become an established business owner.

The narrative analysis is based on qualitative interview data with 11 MFE in Mexico.

The analysis reveals that MFEs’ sense of belonging evolves from self-oriented to more socially-oriented identity claims. In the former, the need to “fit in” and achieve material aspects of belonging is intertwined with gender and family responsibilities. In the latter, the need to “stand out” and achieve affective aspects of belonging is intertwined with validating entrepreneurial achievements by challenging gendered assumptions and helping others through the notion of “sisterhood.”

The paper extends the understanding of the relation of material and affective aspects of belonging as an “evolving” process from the nascent stage to the established stage of entrepreneurship. Within the evolving process of entrepreneurial belonging, a shift from material to affective aspects unveils a theoretical framework that relates belonging, gender and entrepreneurship in context. This process seems to regulate entrepreneur’s agency in what they interpret as acceptable while standing up against challenges and legitimizing belonging through the emergence of a “sisterhood.”

The purpose of this study is to utilize social cognitive theory to investigate how social comparison orientations, individual cognitive, and environmental factors influence females' decisions to pursue self-employment in the United Arab Emirates In doing so, the authors explore how the entrepreneurial self-efficacy of Emirati women also influences individuals towards entrepreneurship.

Using a survey instrument administered in both English and Arabic, data were collected from one hundred and three (103) employed Emirati women and eighty-four (84) self-employed Emirati women who were taking part in workshops conducted by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce.

The results from the study suggest that the social environment is a contributing factor toward self-employment, with higher levels of social comparison orientation increasing the likelihood of Emirati women being self-employed. Consistent with prior research, the authors also find that internal cognitive factors also play a significant role, with Emirati women possessing higher levels of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and having a higher likelihood of being self-employed.

This is one of the few studies aimed at exploring the role of social comparison orientation as a factor in motivating females towards entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.