Immigrant women’s entrepreneurship has received increasing scholarly attention, particularly regarding gendered constraints, mixed networks, and multi-layered liabilities (Aman et al., 2024; De Luca & Ambrosini, 2019; Kabbara et al., 2025; Lassalle & Shaw, 2021). Yet the entrepreneurial trajectories of Brazilian immigrant women in Portugal remain insufficiently examined, especially when active ventures are analyzed alongside discontinued, suspended, paused, or closed businesses (Duan et al., 2023; Galvão et al., 2025). Addressing this gap, this study investigates the motivations, challenges, and outcomes shaping the entrepreneurial trajectories of Brazilian immigrant women in Portugal. The research adopts an explanatory qualitative design based on 34 semi-structured interviews conducted between April 2025 and May 2026 with Brazilian immigrant women entrepreneurs in Portugal. The sample includes 19 active ventures and 15 discontinued, suspended, paused, or closed ventures, enabling a comparative analysis of business continuity and discontinuity. Data were examined through thematic analysis, following Braun and Clarke’s approach, which supports the interpretive identification of patterned meanings across participants’ accounts (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The findings show that entrepreneurial trajectories were shaped by the cumulative interaction of hybrid motivations, prior human capital, relational support, market adaptation, institutional and sociocultural barriers, gendered care responsibilities, and emotional and identity reconstruction. Business continuity and discontinuity were not explained by entirely distinct sets of factors. Rather, similar conditions were configured differently across trajectories, depending on how resources, constraints, support mechanisms, and personal circumstances were translated, negotiated, and sustained over time. Active ventures tended to be sustained when previous experience was converted into recognized value, support networks provided practical and emotional resources, and market adaptation became viable. Discontinued, suspended, paused, or closed ventures reflected the cumulative weight of unresolved constraints, including bureaucracy, weak access to finance, limited support, market undervaluation, family overload, and emotional exhaustion. This study contributes to female immigrant entrepreneurship literature by moving beyond fixed understandings of success and failure and showing how outcomes are shaped through processes of continuity, suspension, pause, discontinuity, and business closure. It also highlights the importance of context-sensitive policies that strengthen institutional guidance, access to finance, support for care and family responsibilities, and inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems. References Aman, R., Elo, M., Ahokangas, P., & Zhang, X. (2024). Empowering migrant women’s entrepreneurship: Stakeholder perspectives from the entrepreneurial ecosystem. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 30(7), 1698–1724. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-04-2023-0425 Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa De Luca, D., & Ambrosini, M. (2019). Female immigrant entrepreneurs: More than a family strategy. International Migration, 57(5), 201–215. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12564 Duan, C., Kotey, B., & Sandhu, K. (2023). A systematic literature review of determinants of immigrant entrepreneurship motivations. Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, 35(4), 599–631. https://doi.org/10.1080/08276331.2021.1997490 Galvão, A. R., Marques, C. S. E., Mascarenhas, C., & Pinto, D. (2025). Immigrant and return migrant entrepreneurs’ motivations, challenges, and support sources in Portugal’s low-density Douro Valley. Strategic Change. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.2679 Kabbara, D., Suárez-Ortega, S. M., & Zucchella, A. (2025). Developing entrepreneurial opportunities through multi-layered liabilities: The experiences of female migrant entrepreneurs. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 21, Article 4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-024-01010-3 Lassalle, P., & Shaw, E. (2021). Trailing wives and constrained agency among women migrant entrepreneurs: An intersectional perspective. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 45(6), 1496–1521. https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258721990331

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Female immigrant entrepreneurship,Brazilian women entrepreneurs,Entrepreneurial motivations,Challenges in entrepreneurship,Business continuity and discontinuity