British Academy of Management Conference 2016

This paper discusses lifestyle entrepreneurship through the ideal type of the Freestyler (Lewis, 2008), a lifestyle entrepreneur who is motivated by growth and profit alongside lifestyle and life quality. Targeting a population of lifestyle entrepreneurs (n=101) within the surf industry and subculture of Devon and Cornwall, UK, this study utilised an online survey to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Analysis involved IBM SPSS Statistics for quantitative data, whilst qualitative data was analysed using a combination of latent and inductive content analysis. Results found that 82.2% of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur population surveyed were Freestylers who viewed life quality, lifestyle, profit and growth of great value. Freestyler’s were found to be male, aged between 25-34 with a broad range of educational achievement, but the majority being university graduates. Although Freestylers value lifestyle during the start-up phase of their business, they focus on the future economic challenges that they may face. Similarly, although they value the location of their business for its lifestyle benefits, it is not overly valued as a location for their business. This illustrates the competing motives of the Freestyler which sees them constantly trying to balance their value for lifestyle and business. This study goes on to suggest that the interpretive framework (Deacon and Firebaugh, 1988; Morris, 1998) proposes that these competing motives can be managed by the Freestyler through an ongoing process of input, throughput, output and feedback.