Unexpected entrepreneurs: the identity work of entrepreneurs with disabilities

Jammaers, Eline; Zanoni, Patrizia

doi:10.1080/08985626.2020.1842913

Cited by 23 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…Identity work is a process of working on one's sense of self through interactions taking place within specific settings (Anderson, Warren, and Bensemann 2019;Leitch and Harrison 2016). Work in this area has provided insight into how entrepreneurs utilize self-narrative to negotiate a sense of what it means to be an entrepreneur and sustain their entrepreneurial actions (Cohen and Musson 2000;Down and Warren 2008;Garcia-Lorenzo, Sell-Trujillo, and Donnelly 2020;Jammaers and Zanoni 2020;Muhr et al 2019;Warren 2009). This perspective sheds light on the increasingly resonant positioning of entrepreneurship as socially embedded, with which our work aligns (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Identity work in different entrepreneurial settings: dominant interpretive repertoires and divergent striving agendas

Knox

Casulli

Maclaren

2021

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development

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This paper examines how entrepreneurs within different settings reflect on social interactions to work on their identity. Using life story narratives, we explore a business membership network and a creative hub in the central belt of Scotland. Our subsequent model shows how individuals in these settings use different dominant interpretive repertoires, as represented by structural-instrumental work in the business network and relational work in the creative hub. We also show how the interpretive repertoires both shape and are shaped by what individuals strive for in their identity work: striving for esteem and striving for closeness. We discuss how our findings offer insight into the dynamics of social identities and how they are reproduced and maintained through situated exchange using specific interpretive repertoires and striving agendas.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Identity work in different entrepreneurial settings: dominant interpretive repertoires and divergent striving agendas

Knox

Casulli

Maclaren

2021

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development

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“…For instance, addressing Jones and Latreille's (2011) concern about customer discrimination, it is shown that entrepreneurs with both invisible and visible impairments who sell mainstream products to mainstream markets experience stigma associated with disability that is 'felt' as well as 'enacted' (Scambler 2009) in the actual negative reactions from customers. Responding to a call for research into 'when and how disability can become a ground for gaining legitimacy, rather than a liability' (Jammaers and Zanoni 2020), this article illustrates that disability can generate advantages particularly for entrepreneurs who sell disability-related products to niche disability or mainstream markets.…”

Section: Discussion and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impairment (in)visibility and stigma: how disabled entrepreneurs gain legitimacy in mainstream and disability markets

Kasperova

2021

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development

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Entrepreneurs' use of linguistic practices, such as storytelling, in building legitimacy with customers and others is well documented. Yet, not all entrepreneurs may equally use or benefit from such practices in their legitimacy-building efforts. For those with stigmatized social identities, like disability, embodied properties and practices of non-linguistic, more visual kind, may be salient despite being under-explored in the entrepreneurial legitimacy studies. To address this knowledge gap, this article examines how disabled entrepreneurs gain legitimacy with customers and, more specifically, how impairment visibility shapes their capacity to do so. Drawing primarily on in-depth interviews with UK-based entrepreneurs, the article extends Suchman's work by reconceptualizing his legitimacy-building strategies considering impairment visibility. It is argued that impairment visibility can both enable and constrain legitimacy depending on the product offering and the target market. Disabled entrepreneurs are found to adopt four embodied legitimacy-building strategies in the marketplace, each with specific implications for their micro-level interactions with customers.

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“…Entrepreneurs with an underdog status may work harder ( Nurmohamed, 2020 ), approach problems differently ( Miller and Breton-Miller, 2017 ), have a strong desire to change their current situation ( Genicot and Ray, 2017 ), have sufficient experience to deal with uncertainties and frustrations ( Kish-Gephart and Campbell, 2015 ), and be familiar with the needs of disadvantaged people ( Wierenga, 2020 ). Therefore, we argue that although the underdog status means that they face additional multiple obstacles in entrepreneurship ( Jammaers and Zanoni, 2020b ), underdog entrepreneurs can still achieve high resource efficiency by exploiting the underdog effect. Unlike previous studies that emphasized the firm level and economic outcomes, this paper uses the individual resource efficiency of entrepreneurs to evaluate the entrepreneurial outcomes, reflecting the overall efficiency of the individual’s resource investment in entrepreneurship transformed into entrepreneurial returns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The term underdog entrepreneur does not have a clear and consistent definition, but it is often used to represent entrepreneurs among disadvantaged people who cannot find jobs, face societal marginalization, or have low social status ( Miller and Breton-Miller, 2017 ; Baron et al, 2018 ). In previous studies, different types of entrepreneurs were classified as underdog entrepreneurs, including extremely poor people ( Lee et al, 2018 ; Xiong et al, 2018 ; Shepherd et al, 2021 ), ADHD ( Patel et al, 2021 ; Yu et al, 2021 ), the physically handicapped ( Renko et al, 2016 ; Jammaers and Zanoni, 2020b ), veterans ( Hope and Mackin, 2011 ), seniors ( Kautonen et al, 2011 ; Maalaoui et al, 2019 ), the unemployed ( Caliendo and Kritikos, 2010 ), immigrants ( Clark et al, 2016 ; Dabić et al, 2020 ), ethnic minorities ( Carter et al, 2015 ), and refugees ( Shepherd et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypotheses Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This phenomenon is common in political elections, sporting events, film awards, and other contexts ( Paharia et al, 2011 ; Nurmohamed, 2020 ). In entrepreneurship research, underdog entrepreneurs refer to entrepreneurs who are faced with unavoidable and difficult to change challenges in economy, social culture, cognition, body, or emotion ( Miller and Breton-Miller, 2017 ), such as disabled entrepreneurs ( Jammaers and Zanoni, 2020b ; Martin and Honig, 2020 ), student entrepreneurs ( Ahsan et al, 2018 ), veterans entrepreneurs ( Heinz et al, 2017 ), refugee entrepreneurs ( Bizri, 2017 ; Jiang et al, 2021 ), ethnic minority entrepreneurs ( Neville et al, 2018 ), ADHD entrepreneurs ( Wiklund et al, 2017 ), etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Creating Extraordinary From Ordinary: High Resource Efficiency of Underdog Entrepreneurs and Its Mechanism

2022

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Existing theory has not documented the potential benefits of facing the challenges of underdog entrepreneurs, who may succeed unexpectedly. This research explains why, and under what circumstances, the underdog status of entrepreneurs can promote entrepreneurial success rather than just hinder it. We predict that the underdog effect has the potential to boost entrepreneurial resource efficiency when entrepreneurs hold an incremental (vs. entity) theory, enter a low-barrier (vs. high-barrier) industry, and are in a favorable (vs. unfavorable) business environment. Study 1 provides support for the positive relationship between underdog status and resource efficiency through an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis, which is accompanied by a moderating effect of the implicit theory, industry context, and business environment. The data was obtained from two nationwide surveys. By extending a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of multiple case studies, Study 2 reveals support for a synergistic effect of the above factors. Our research results examine the assumption that perceiving underdog status is detrimental and offer meaningful insights into why and when underdog entrepreneurs have good performance in entrepreneurial resource efficiency. We provide a psychological and behavioral explanation for the underdog effect, extending the underdog effect theory to the field of entrepreneurship for the first time from the perspective of the actors. Finally, theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed by indicating the limitations of the research.

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Unexpected entrepreneurs: the identity work of entrepreneurs with disabilities

Cited by 23 publications

References 90 publications

Identity work in different entrepreneurial settings: dominant interpretive repertoires and divergent striving agendas

Identity work in different entrepreneurial settings: dominant interpretive repertoires and divergent striving agendas

Impairment (in)visibility and stigma: how disabled entrepreneurs gain legitimacy in mainstream and disability markets

Creating Extraordinary From Ordinary: High Resource Efficiency of Underdog Entrepreneurs and Its Mechanism

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