Navigating belonging as a Muslim Moroccan female entrepreneur

Abstract

Entrepreneurship and families are inextricably intertwined. However, there is limited research on how female ethnic minority entrepreneurs achieve belonging and how they navigate the values and norms of their family, the ethnic community, and, for instance, clients. This article theorizes the processes of entrepreneurial belonging through an empirically informed ethnography of Muslim Moroccan female entrepreneurs (MMFEs) in the Netherlands. The analysis unveils the perceptions and contradictions regarding achieving belonging through navigating gender, ethnicity, and religion, but also relationships with family, community, and other stakeholders. It demonstrates how MMFEs must pierce through societal and professional stereotypes to establish themselves as entrepreneurs.

Dynamics of entrepreneurial belonging among Mexican female entrepreneurs

“…In particular, entrepreneurial belonging for women is a core activity requiring acceptance and legitimacy as an individual through developing agency within shifting power asymmetries (Stead, 2017). While studies of gender and entrepreneurship have explored the ways in which women struggle to belong – fit in – as entrepreneurs in different context (Barragan et al , 2018; Essers et al , 2020; Lewis, 2013; Marlow and McAdam, 2012), there is a need to further understand the “gendered dynamics of belonging,” and specifically, the way in which women “work to position and reposition themselves as entrepreneurs over some time” (Stead, 2017, p. 74). Moreover, Stead (2017, p. 69) highlights the complexity and varying nature of belonging by stating “how women entrepreneurs often dance between different ways of performing belonging to realize belonging in a material sense (joining a business) and in an affective sense (being and feeling accepted as an entrepreneur).” This performative process seems to be connected to identity and legitimation (De Clerq and Voronov, 2009; Pailot et al , 2017; Swail and Marlow, 2018).…”

“…In doing so, we draw upon the literature of entrepreneurial sense of belonging and legitimacy practices (De Clerq and Voronov, 2009; Essers et al , 2020; Pailot et al , 2017; Stead, 2017; Swail and Marlow, 2018) and use the entrepreneurial process (Reynolds et al , 2005) to develop a framework for understanding the sense of belonging in the process of transitioning from the nascent to the established stage of entrepreneurship. Specifically, we explore how Mexican female entrepreneurs (MFEs) perform the material and affective sense of belonging and legitimacy practices.…”

“…Our contributions are twofold. First, we contribute to the literature of entrepreneurial belonging (Essers et al , 2020; Stead, 2017), a framework of belonging as an “evolving” process of transitioning from becoming a nascent stage entrepreneur to an established stage entrepreneur. We address this process of entrepreneurial belonging as an identity endeavor, changing from self-oriented to social-oriented identity claims in which MFEs agency reveals the emergence of a “sisterhood” as a means of legitimizing affective sense of belonging.…”

“…Belonging is said to be a perception of acceptance, recognition and inclusion (Essers et al , 2020; Stead, 2017) where a sense of social acceptance and validation is perceived instead of feeling isolation and exclusion (Bryer, 2019; Essers et al , 2020; Stead, 2017). Therefore, the processes, practices and theories of belonging can be seen across multiple disciplines.…”

“…Therefore, the processes, practices and theories of belonging can be seen across multiple disciplines. However, attention to the concept of belonging in the entrepreneurial literature (Essers et al , 2020; Lewis and Simpson, 2012; Stead, 2017) remains scattered. Yet, issues of belonging are central in studies of women entrepreneurs (Duberley and Carrigan, 2013; Mallon and Cohen, 2001; Rotefoss and Kolvereid, 2005), focusing on both individual concerns, including gaining legitimacy and acceptance and of developing an entrepreneurial identity, to social concerns including how social practices might facilitate women’s belonging (Stead, 2017).…”