Doubly Disadvantaged: Gender, Spatially Concentrated Deprivation and Nascent Entrepreneurial Activity

Abstract

Drawing on human capital, intersectionality and mixed embeddedness theory, we test hypotheses on the relationship between gender differences in human capital and gender differences in nascent entrepreneurial activity across geographical space, and the moderating effect of spatially concentrated deprivation on this relationship. Using UK data from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, we find that the disadvantaged position of female nascent entrepreneurs arises from social exclusion, and specifically that the gender differences in nascent entrepreneurial activity are directly related to differences in general and specific human capital across locales. Moreover, in deprived locations, women as a group do not gain from any human capital advantage they might have over men, causing a double disadvantage for women. Our results make a novel contribution to the literature on disadvantage entrepreneurship, and we discuss policy options to tackle double disadvantage in deprived locales.

Immigrant entrepreneurship: A review and research agenda

“…Intersectionality literature discusses the privileges and disadvantages emanating from the intersection of social positions of gender, race, and ethnicity (Gill and Larson, 2014;Wang and Warn, 2017). A critical element of intersectionality theory is that intersecting social positions have multiplicative rather than additive effects (Dubrow, 2008;Murzacheva, Sahasranamam, and Levie, 2019). Females and people from ethnic minorities are seen to face significant disadvantages in entrepreneurship (Pio and Essers, 2014;Cheng, 2015).…”

“…Entrepreneurship literature in general utilizes intersectionality theory in studying female entrepreneurs or disadvantaged communities (Carter et al, 2015;Murzacheva et al, 2019). The context of immigrant entrepreneurship additionally opens up the dimension of ethnicity and migrant status as an intersectional influence on entrepreneurship.…”

“…For instance, within large emerging markets, such as China and India, there are subregions that are more cosmopolitan (e.g., Mumbai or Bengaluru in India, Shanghai in China) compared to other regions and are observed to be influential on entrepreneurial activity (Bhagavatula et al, 2019;Chatterjee & Sahasranamam, 2018). Similarly, factors such as regional entrepreneurial culture, community deprivation, and city characteristics are known to influence entrepreneurship (Murzacheva et al, 2019;Qian, 2017). Scholars need to build on such research into sub-national characteristics in order to understand how these sub-national aspects influence immigrant entrepreneurship.…”

Running their own show: Malaysian women entrepreneurs’ kaleidoscope careers

“…As a result, research based on developed countries often associates women entrepreneurship with the realization of autonomy, equality, selfactualization, and work-nonwork balance (Alkhaled and Berglund, 2018;Braches and Elliott, 2016;Gherardi, 2015). However, studies conducted in less developed countries found that entrepreneurship among women is often considered as a means to survive, be empowered, and move out of poverty (Bruton et al, 2013;Kakabadse et al, 2018;Minniti and Naud e, 2010;Murzacheva et al, 2019;Sutter et al, 2019). Malaysia, being a middle income, developing economy in Southeast Asia, but ranking high for women's active engagement, offers an interesting ground to explore the dynamics of women entrepreneurs' careers.…”

Count me in: The Question of Being and Trans-Entrepreneurs

“…It indicated that gender influences the way one can access certain resources. Despite the progress research has made, recent studies (Murzacheva, Sahasranamam, & Levie, 2020;Wang, 2019) found discriminatory experiences of women entrepreneurs accompanying the perception that they are somewhat disadvantaged comparatively men entrepreneurs.…”