Guest editorial Gender, intersecting identities, and entrepreneurship research: an introduction to a special section on intersectionality We are delighted to present this special section of IJEBR. It brings together a collection of innovative research addressing gender and entrepreneurship from an intersectionality perspective. An intersectional perspective recognizes that no single identity category can satisfactorily explain how we respond to our social environment or are responded to by others. People experience multiple identities and these identities are both fluid and stable. We focus on gender as the common identity category in this special section because, while it is not always and everywhere the most important social identity, gender is the most pervasive, visible and codified (Shields, 2008). Many feminist authors follow an intersectional research approach because of their strong belief in its radical potential to change social practice and its ability to "free individuals and social groups from the normative fix of a hegemonic order" (McCall, 2005, p. 1777). In entrepreneurship, researchers may be drawn by the promise of intersectionality in enabling more complex and inclusive understandings of experience. These convictions are particularly palpable in the first two papers presented in this collection. First, in their conceptual paper, "New direction for entrepreneurship through a gender and disability lens," Williams and Patterson examine the neglected nexus of disability and gender. They bring together literature on women's entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship and disability, and feminist disability to identify a number of theoretical synergies and variances in the extant work. Different ways of construing intersectionalityby different researchers and within and between disparate disciplinesoften make it difficult to ensure that the academic conversation begins from the same pointof reference (Shields, 2008). Patterson and Williams paper succeeds in bridging research across a number of disciplines and reconciles the reader with the tremendous potential of intersectionality for instigating real social change. Following this, in their article, "Intersectionality and mixed methods for social context in entrepreneurship," Dy and Agwunobi explore the conceptual possibilities of intersectionality and connect with recent calls for more contextualized entrepreneurship research throughout the field (Welter, 2011; Zahra and Wright, 2011). They propose intersectionality as a powerful interpretive frame for understanding social context, entrepreneurial activity and outcomes with a particular regard for agency and resource access. While many gender and entrepreneurship researchers have recognized the importance of studying varying social identity intersections in context, not many have yet taken up the challenge. In conventional social and behavioral research, intersectionality is frequently defined as a methodological challenge (Shields, 2008). Indeed, the suite of methodological tools available can impede the "r...
PurposeThis paper aims to explore experiences of poverty in the enterprise amongst people with a disability or long-term health challenges. This paper departs somewhat from established wisdom about economic or financial drivers of enterprise by exploring why a disabled individual would start and continue to operate in a business where that business is providing income-poverty. In so doing, it subscribes to the idea that the enterprise involves reflexive engagement of an agent in context where value(s) of the enterprise other than financial may be prioritised.Design/methodology/approachThe research draws from a larger qualitative study of self-employment and poverty in which half the sample (21 individuals) identified as experiencing disability or poor health. Semi-structured interviews were conducted these participants and a thematic analysis with specific reference to Theory of Venturing, which proposes that the value of enterprise is reflexively and idiosyncratically understood and morphogenetic, was used to explore itinerant issues, experiences and challenges.FindingsIn line with the theory, findings include that disability and poor health are observed to be both prompters and shapers of an enterprise and that the value of enterprise is not always primarily associated with financial wealth for the participants in the sample. Flexibility and autonomy are attractive features of self-employment for some in the face of an inflexible and sometimes hostile labour market.Originality/valueThis paper demonstrates that engaging in enterprise is motivated by an agent's reflexive evaluation of value(s) and how that enables them to navigate their structural condition(s); this contribution enhances theoretical approaches to enterprise and business creation by illuminating some of its diversity. This paper also contributes some much needed data about a group who are under-represented in the enterprise literature despite being over-represented in practice. There are implications and recommendations for policy and practice in the exposure and analysis of the issues emerging.
since it carries with it the potential for reduction of unemployment rates. However, while it is true that new businesses employ the founder and sometimes others (Audretsch and Thurik, 2001), business is not an economic panacea. It has become associated with economic valueadding because of the conflation of two quite distinct types of business activity. First are the growth-oriented start-ups with the potential to contribute employment and financial value, referred to specifically as 'entrepreneurial' firms (Baumol, 1990;Audretsch, 2006;Bögenhold, 2019). Thereafter, all other businesses, including selfemployment, are pulled together with these to arrive at a conceptual and statistical 'entrepreneurship' rate (e.g. Bosma and Kelley, 2019). In this chapter we use the term 'enterprise' to refer to holistic business venturing activity, thereby reserving the term 'entrepreneurship' for a specific growth-oriented business type.Despite the conflation of the range of business, there is an ongoing narrative throughout the literature that, by value-adding, (all) enterprise generates wealth and is therefore a solution to poverty (see for example Rindova et al., 2009;Bruton et al., 2013). Supporting this assertion is evidence of high levels of intentions to start up or become self-employed amongst the Western poor (unhelpfully referred to in some papers as 'entrepreneurial intentions') (Hart et al., 2018). This chapter explores if a context of poverty itself is a contributing motivator for pursuing enterprise and how it might inform and shape ensuing enterprise experiences.According to a UN report, a fifth of the UK population live in poverty (where poverty is defined as family income below a government-defined threshold) (Alston, 2018). This poverty intersects with enterprise, and rates of poverty for the self-employed are the highest for any 'employed' group (Galloway et al., 2016; Scottish Government, 2016, respectively). Further, the extent of the poverty is worsening, with greater reduction in income levels amongst self-employed people in the lowest income centile than other groups (Belfield et al., 2015). Assuming poverty is not a satisfactory state for individuals, a question central in this chapter is: What were the original motivations of those engaged in enterprise, and now living in poverty, for this mode of work?This chapter proceeds as follows. First, we review the literature on enterprise motivations. Thereafter we set out the methodology used to collect and analyse the data presented. We discuss our findings and present conclusions with considerations given
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