Improving household well‐being through entrepreneurship and inclusive finance in the context of the Next‐11 countries

Scholarship brainstorming on household welfare enablers abounds in academic literature. Nonetheless, the perspective of entrepreneurship, particularly for the Next‐11 countries, is underreported. Likewise, prior literature failed to investigate the influence of categorical (gender‐specific) entrepreneurship on household welfare. Thus, this investigation covers this lacuna by examining the predictive effects of aggregate, male and female entrepreneurship and financial inclusiveness on household welfare. With panel series spanning 2004–2021, both the Westerlund and Banerjee & Carrion‐i‐Silvestre cointegration procedures confirmed long‐term convergence among the series. The estimates of the augmented mean group (AMG) and the cross‐sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CSARDL) techniques revealed that entrepreneurship enhances household well‐being. This outcome validates the self‐determination theory since entrepreneurial engagements enhance household welfare. By extension, policies targeting entrepreneurship empowerment are critical for economic prosperity in these countries. In terms of gender variations, it is established that female entrepreneurship, much more than male, enhances household well‐being significantly. Furthermore, although automated teller machine availability promotes subjective well‐being, the number of commercial bank branches enhances only objective well‐being. Meanwhile, commercial bank loans failed to enhance both aspects of welfare at all times. Hence, we have provided relevant policy options that would ensure the maximization of households’ well‐being in these countries and other emerging economies.