Disadvantage Entrepreneurship: Decoding a New Area of Research

• Author: Vanessa Ratten,Sibylle Heilbrunn,Sascha Kraus,Malin Brannback,Adnane Maalaoui
• Published date: 01 September 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12424
• Date: 01 September 2020

Disadvantage Entrepreneurship: Decoding a

New Area of Research

ADNANE MAALAOUI,

2

VANESSA RATT EN ,

3

SIBYLLE HEILBRUNN,

4

MALIN BRANNBACK

5

and SASCHA KRAUS

1

This paper discusses disadvantaged entrepreneurship by exploring what is meant by the term and then taking a

broadapproach towardsits understanding as a research field worthyof more attention. We considerentrepreneurship

as a support to the social and economic integration of disadvantaged people through their creation of new

enterprises. Although the focus is on the positive benefits of entrepreneurship for disadvantaged people, we also

acknowledge the undesirable realization that it can often be a necessity for those facing societal marginalization

Introduction

Lately, entrepreneurship has come to symbolize the

principles of our modern socio‐economy (Ferreira et al.,

2019), in which markets and societies are one, and

which then, follow ing Audretsch’s (2009 ) argument,

become entrepreneurial societies. Embedded within the

new ‘common sense’(Lewis‐Kraus, 2014;Szeman, 2015)

entrepreneurs are celebrated as cultural heroes and

self‐employment has become an idealized ambition –

combining freedom and independence, wealth and

hard work, while creating added value for the

economy and soci ety (Heilbrunn and I annone, 2019).

The entrepreneur‐hero’s typical business is often

hidden from popular discourse, as are governmentally

created opportunities for unproductive entrepreneurship

(Mitra, 2012). Instead, an atypical minority of extremely

successful cases have attracted interest –media, research

and policy –and have colonized the zeitgeist model. In

this special issue we focus on the ‘others’, those that are

far from the entrepreneurial hero zeitgeist model.

We intend to generate reflections, debate and critical

discussionson the disadvanatged entrepreneurs, following

Karatas‐Ozkan et al. (2014) who propose, that in order to

more deeply engage in philosophical and theoretical

foundations of entrepreneurship research, paradigms need

to be questioned.

Who are the disadvantaged entrepreneurs?

Disadvantaged entrepreneurs can appear in different

forms and in different contexts. Causes for disadvantage

can be as various as national identity, disabilities,

sexual orientation, age, religion, or political affiliation

(Morgan, 2020). Importantly, the assumption that all

entrepreneurshave equal access to resources,participation

and support, as well as an equal chance to develop a

successful venture startup (McAdam et al., 2019) must

be questioned concerning disadvantaged entrepreneurs.

Thus, in terms of the OECD agenda, missing

entrepreneurs are groups of people who need to receive

support and access to equal opportunities and resources

in order to create successful sustainable businesses

(OECD/European Union, 2019). Next to seniors,

immigrants and young people, women are among

the key target groups of the OECD’s inclusive

entrepreneurship policy agenda, aimed at expanding

entrepreneurship in order to create jobs, leverage

technological d evelopment and meet economic and soc ial

challenges (OECD/European Union, 2019). Compared to

a rather large body of literature focusing on constructive

and positive characteristics of successful disadvantaged

entrepreneurs (Balcazar et al., 2014; Saxena and

Pandya, 2018; Hsiehet al., 2019) there are fewer attempts

to address the impact of negative personal circumstances

(Miller and Breton‐Miller, 2017; Hsieh et al., 2019).

In the call for this special issue we extended the

scope of investigation to a variety of dimensions of

disadvantage, very much encompassing the social

divisions at thebasis of inequalities, namelyclass, gender,

race/ethnicity and (in)ability (Yuval‐Davis, 2015).

Disadvantaged entrepreneurs –we believe –

incorporate a wide range of individuals and groups

that vary depending on their socio‐demographic

circumstances and attributes (Kushnirovich et al., 2017;

Miller and Breton‐Miller, 2017). They are young

people and students (Krueger et al., 2000), women

(Marlow, 2014), seniors (Kautonen, 2008; Kautonen

et al., 2011; Maâlaoui et al., 2013; Harms et al., 2014),

unemployed immigrants (Aliaga‐Isla and Rialp, 2013;

European Management Review, Vol. 17, 663–668, (2020)

DOI: 10.1111/emre.12424

© 2020 European Academy of Management