Bios, mythoiand women entrepreneurs: A Wynterian analysis of the intersectional impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-employed women and women-owned businesses

Decolonial philosopher Sylvia Wynter theorises the human animal as formed by both bios and mythoi, or matter and meaning. This article adopts this ontological perspective to explore the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on UK self-employed women and women-owned businesses through an intersectional lens accounting for race, class and gender. We argue that unequal health outcomes from COVID-19 are not solely biological; rather, they are also the outcome of social inequalities. Drawing upon the Wynterian elaboration of Fanon’s work on sociogeny – the shaping of the embodied human experience by the norms of given society – to explain this phenomenon, we contend that the same inequalities emerging in health outcomes will be reflected in entrepreneurship and self-employment. Drawing on Labour Force Survey data for the past decade, we peer through the Wynterian prism of bios and mythoi to argue that marginalised entrepreneurs are likely to experience extreme precarity due to COVID-19 and so require targeted support

Training approaches, preferences and outcomes in manufacturing SMEs

Unlike previous studies which concentrate only on formal training, this is a detailed empirical analysis of the influence of formal and informal training on performance in manufacturing SMEs. Findings indicate that, while SME managers may prefer informal approaches, formal training is a targeted activity that contributes more significantly to performance than informal training. However, the approach and influence of training is dependent on contingent factors. A model is proposed for a detailed study of these contingent factors using a multivariate statistical analysis. Findings also suggest that policy support for SMEs should be idiosyncratic and requires a detailed understanding of context

The management development needs in manufacturing SMEs: an empirical assessment

Among the many reasons for small business failure or slow growth, a lack of management skills within smaller businesses has been highlighted as a contributory factor. In recognition of this training provision and management development have dominated much of the academic and policy debate on small firm development since the late 1980s. However, to date, little empirical work has sought to look further than simple frequency accounts. No research has given theoretical explanations for what and how management skills are developed in organisations and the impact of such efforts. Whereas researchers assume that management development and training can be directly related to performance, the focus has been on management development as a holistic intervention. Few have actually investigated a link between the various component management skills/ techniques and performance to understand if this assumption is founded. This article records the empirical research that investigates the managers' perceptions of the various component management skills/techniques and their added value. According to some authors (see for example, Kitching, 1998; Westhead, 1998), the SME1 sector is not homogeneous and therefore identifying development needs and delivering training support is contextually specific and dependent on a variety of factors. Firm size (Kithching & Blackburn, 2002; O'Dwyer & Ryan, 2000) and age(Morgan et al, 2002) were noted as the main determining factors for the extent and approach to management development in SMEs and therefore will be explored in this paper. In addition, whether the business was owner managed or not and who in the business took responsibility for management development, were assessed against the skill needs. The research is based on the results of a survey of 198 UK SMEs. It proposes five techniques for management development and provides some initial assessment of the implications of the typology. The results indicate that while firm size influences the utilisation of management development techniques, firm age, business ownership or development responsibility has no such influence. This suggests that the nature of management development has to be tailored to what are seen as the needs of the group in question. The research also highlighted the positive relationship between management skill development and organisational performance. From this, it appears that much of the observed difference between successful and unsuccessful firms lies in their decision to train and develop management skills/ techniques, the contribution of which varies according to the size of the business

A GENDERED LIFE COURSE EXPLANATION OF THE EXIT DECISION IN THE CONTEXT OF HOUSEHOLD DYNAMICS

Using a gendered household analysis, we explore the extent to which operating a business upon a flexible basis at specific times in the life course impacts upon an entrepreneur’s exit from their business. Drawing upon UK data and a discrete-time event history model to conduct a life course analysis, we find women caring for young children are more likely to exit given limited returns related to incompatible demands between the time required to generate sufficient returns and caring demands. Limited returns however, were not significant to continuation rates if a male partner contributed a compensatory household income

The NES follow-up survey 2006: an evaluation of the experiences of new entrepreneur scholars and their businesses

Belgium Herbarium image of Meise Botanic Garden

Racial capitalism and entrepreneurship: An intersectional feminist labour market perspective on UK self-employment

This article explains entrepreneurial activity patterns in the United Kingdom (UK) labour market using theories of racial capitalism and intersectional feminism. Using UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) Labour Force Survey (LFS) data 2018-19 and employing probit modelling techniques on employment modes, self-employment types, and work arrangements amongst differing groups, we investigate inequality in self-employment within and between socio-structural groupings of race, class and gender. We find that those belonging to non-dominant gender, race and socioeconomic class groupings experience an intersecting set of entrepreneurial penalties, enhancing understanding of the ways multiple social hierarchies interact in self-employment patterns. This robust quantitative evidence challenges contemporary debates, policy and practice regarding the potential for entrepreneurship to offer viable income generation opportunities by those on the socioeconomic margins

Knowledge and quality management: an R&D perspective

The nature of knowledge management in a research and development (R&D) environment and the implications for the use of quality systems are examined. We suggest knowledge inquiry in an R&D context is localised, provisional, mediated and pragmatic. Using case study analysis of seven technology-based UK R&D organisations we investigate their experiences and how use of quality systems promotes and/or discourages the exploration and exploitation of R&D knowledge. We argue that the knowledge-intensive nature of R&D activity, coupled to the endlessly re-constructed nature of the knowledge, precludes the use of generic frameworks or best-practice guidelines. We conclude that the use of quality systems in R&D environments are most effective when they provide an organisational background or frame within which individuals are encouraged to undertake inquiries that are integrated with the firm's strategic concerns without these concerns being at all fixed. Such systems are least effective when they externally impose procedures as unmoveable and immutable “blueprints”

Structures of exclusion from enterprise finance

Business start-up is promoted to the labour-market disadvantaged internationally. This policy increasingly draws on the concept of social inclusion. In this paper we define ‘enterprise inclusion’ policy as situating the chance to start a viable business as a right and supporting the multiply disadvantaged to overcome strong barriers to enterprise. We draw on the resource-based view of entrepreneurship to argue that viable business ownership is contingent on access to resources. We explore how access to a primary business resource—start-up finance—relates to intersecting social disadvantages. We report a complex pattern of financial exclusion. Rather than supporting the concept of interconnecting yet separate social divisions, as argued under social inclusion theory, this supports a class-based interpretation of exclusion from enterprise finance. New research and policy agendas are outlined.