Disability entrepreneurship research: Critical reflection through the lens of individual‐opportunity nexus

Abstract

The individual‐opportunity (IO) nexus has been a highly influential perspective in entrepreneurship, but its market‐focused and variance‐deterministic character pose serious limitations where entrepreneurship is intended as a development policy for disabled people. The extant research in disability entrepreneurship converges in the recognition of structural barriers faced by disabled entrepreneurs, but in most cases, the multilevel challenges only translate to adaptive mechanisms at an individual level. When the IO nexus is adopted as a lens, its variance‐deterministic setup and market‐focused outcome definitions are in favor of entrepreneurs with conventional characteristics, but less helpful for a policy purpose where substantial non‐economic value could be overlooked. Two critical points for consideration in disability entrepreneurship research are the role of context in which the disabled entrepreneurs are embedded, and the influences of different levels of analysis.

How entrepreneurship drives life satisfaction among people with intellectual disabilities (PwID): a mixed-method approach

“…In disability entrepreneurship, which is less specific than intellectual disability, the number of interviewees also tends to be low: usually lower than 30 (Caldwell et al, 2019). This reflects the great difficulty researchers have in accessing suitable participants for research in this field (Klangboonkrong and Baines, 2022). In future research, Entrepreneur with ID and life satisfaction we recommend that the geographical scope be expanded to a multi-country analysis, thus making the sample size larger, and even extended to other PwID who have not started a business and who may or may not be in paid or unpaid employment.…”

“…, 2019). This reflects the great difficulty researchers have in accessing suitable participants for research in this field (Klangboonkrong and Baines, 2022). In future research, we recommend that the geographical scope be expanded to a multi-country analysis, thus making the sample size larger, and even extended to other PwID who have not started a business and who may or may not be in paid or unpaid employment.…”

The influencing factors of personality that affect entrepreneurship development among people with disabilities

“…PWDs face unique challenges in starting and running a business, such as limited access to resources and difficulty in performing certain tasks. Therefore, government support, in the form of financial assistance, tax breaks and accessibility provisions, can help mitigate these challenges and provide a level playing field for disabled entrepreneurs (Klangboonkrong and Baines, 2022). However, the success of entrepreneurs among PWDs depends on their character in using these resources.…”

Enabling Social Entrepreneurship for the Disabled

“…Social entrepreneurship involves the application of traditional entrepreneurial principles to a context and focus related to social issues. This is clearly understood through the views of Kostetska and Berezyak (2014) and Klangboonkrong & Baines (2022) who mention that social entrepreneurship is a response to the social problems of society such as unemployment, poverty, community fragmentation and hunger, which are increasingly chronic and achieve universal social justice.…”