Institutional voids and the emancipatory potential of digital entrepreneurship:Evidence from Saudi Arabia

This paper examines the emergence of digital entrepreneurship in the context of emerging economies. Given that these economies generally lack a well-developed institutional framework, we draw on the concept of institutional voids as our theoretical lens. We argue that digital entrepreneurship facilitates the navigation and bridging of socio-cultural institutional voids but also provides opportunities for entrepreneurs to directly and indirectly alter the existing institutional context. We illustrate these arguments by drawing upon six biographical narrations of female digital entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia. Accordingly, through our development of a multi-level model, we make explicit the two-way causative interaction between entrepreneurial action, institution altering behavior and the social and cultural context, thus providing a framework for future research

Woman’s entrepreneurship as a gendered niche:The implications for regional development policy

In this paper we argue that entrepreneurship is a socio-spatial embedded activity and that the social construction of gender, time, space, economy and culture is manifest in the masculinities that are ascribed a normative role in entrepreneurship development policies. Drawing on feminist approaches to articulate and perform resistance to the hegemonic ‘masculinist’ discourses on entrepreneurship, we argue that women’s entrepreneurship is contextually embedded in institutional and social structures that both limit and provide opportunities for its enactment. Regional economic development policy has focused, inter alia, on stimulating and supporting women’s entrepreneurship through the establishment of women-only entrepreneurial networks to provide support, role models and access to resources. Grounded in feminist geography and based on a detailed qualitative study of network managers and members of formally established women-only networks, we provide evidence of the disconnect between the emancipatory intent and the actual impact of these initiatives. While these networks aim to empower and encourage women into entrepreneurship, in practice they perpetuate women’s marginalisation and ghettoization in gendered niches

Unexpected lives: the intersection of Islam and Arab women’s entrepreneurship

This paper explores how Islam is understood by Muslim women entrepreneurs and considers its influence on their entrepreneurial experiences in the country-specific context of Lebanon. In so doing, we adopt a qualitative interpretative approach, drawing upon 21 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with women entrepreneurs. Accordingly, we present empirical evidence detailing how Muslim women entrepreneurs utilise various aspects and teachings of Islam to make sense of their entrepreneurial decisions within the context of restrictive social and cultural practices. We thus provide insight into how women’s entrepreneurship interlocks with Islamic teachings and the restrictions imposed by patriarchal sociocultural values within the country-specific context of Lebanon. This paper advances entrepreneurship research by demonstrating how Islam unfolds as a source of inspiration and resilience for women entrepreneurs, if and when equipped with an Islamic feminist interpretation

Culture, Islamic capital and the entrepreneurial behaviour of family firms in Saudi Arabia

Purpose: There is a significant gap in understanding with regards to the role of cultural context in family business research. This paper aims to address this by exploring the critical and pervasive influence of culture in shaping the entrepreneurial behaviours of family businesses based in Saudi Arabia. Design/Methodology/Approach: We adopt a qualitative interpretive case study approach, which draws upon interviews with the incumbents and successors of ten Saudi Arabian family firms. Findings: Our empirical evidence reveals the importance of family ties and culture on the entrepreneurial behaviour of family firms in general, and the influence of ‘Islamic capital’ on the intergenerational transfer of family legacy in particular. Originality/value: We provide critical insights on how Islamic capital motivates Saudi family firms to maintain harmony, avoid disputes and create a legacy for future generations by engaging in entrepreneurial behaviours

An exploration of women entrepreneurs “doing context” in family business in the Gulf States

Purpose Drawing on indigenous theory of Ibn Khaldun, the rise and fall of States, this paper explores the agency of women entrepreneurs in family business in Bahrain and the underlying enablers in supporting and facilitating the exercise of this agency. This study attempts to move beyond the Western-centric studies to reflect and bring to light the unique institutional settings of the Gulf States. Design/methodology/approach The research builds on a rich qualitative single case of a family business based in Bahrain. The single case study methodology was motivated by the potential for generating rich contextual insights. Such an approach is particularly valuable to gain a more holistic and deeper understanding of the contextualized phenomenon and its complexity. Findings In this study the authors show how women entrepreneurs take two different paths to enter and become involved in the family business, the barriers they are subjected to and the active role they play in dismantling the challenges to the extent that they become the main mediators between the family business and central institutions in society. Originality/value By incorporating indigenous theory with Western family business concepts, the study extends existing understanding of women entrepreneurs in family business by underscoring the agency that women entrepreneurs have in “doing context” and the role that women play in strengthening common cause and destiny within the family and the business by building and drawing on different forms of loyalty

Transgenerational entrepreneurial family firms: an examination of the business model construct

This paper investigates the intergenerational development of the business model construct within transgenerational entrepreneurial families (TEFs) over a four-year period, using a longitudinal multiple case study methodology comprising 48 interviews, 390 archival sources and 25 observational instances of four TEF firms. As a result of our longitudinal stance, our findings and theoretical model provide new insights into the relationship between business model dimensions (resource, finance, infrastructure, stakeholders and value) for TEF firms within and across different generations. For instance, our insights into the opportunities and risks of knowledge transmission during micro/macro resource pooling contribute to the demographic approach of the theorizing process of the family business field, through developing our understanding of how family participation dimensions affect resources for TEF firms. Accordingly, we advance entrepreneurship theory and practice by assessing the fundamentals of business model construction within the TEF context, thus expediting stronger theoretical perspectives of transgenerational entrepreneurship

Margins of intervention? Gender, Bourdieu and women’s regional entrepreneurial networks

In this paper, we apply a feminist interpretation and an extension of Bourdieu’s theory of practice to explore the gap in our understanding between gender gap issues – the institutionalized and structural inequalities that underpin the differential access to resources by women and men – and women business owners. Drawing on an interpretivist analysis of the lived experience of women entrepreneurs who were members of women-only or open-to-all formal entrepreneurship networks, we examine their enculturation and the strategies they employ to be deemed credible players in the field. We conclude that women-only formal entrepreneurship networks have had a limited impact on helping these women overcome the isolating and individualizing effects of a gendered entrepreneurial field. Despite the promise of familiarization with and sensitization to the field, women-only formal entrepreneurship networks only serve to perpetuate and reproduce the embedded masculinity of the entrepreneurship domain in the absence of appropriate activating mechanisms or ‘margins of intervention’

Margins of intervention? : Gender, Bourdieu and women’s regional entrepreneurial networks

In this paper, we apply a feminist interpretation and an extension of Bourdieu’s theory of practice to explore the gap in our understanding between gender gap issues – the institutionalized and structural inequalities that underpin the differential access to resources by women and men – and women business owners. Drawing on an interpretivist analysis of the lived experience of women entrepreneurs who were members of women-only or open-to-all formal entrepreneurship networks, we examine their enculturation and the strategies they employ to be deemed credible players in the field. We conclude that women-only formal entrepreneurship networks have had a limited impact on helping these women overcome the isolating and individualizing effects of a gendered entrepreneurial field. Despite the promise of familiarization with and sensitization to the field, women-only formal entrepreneurship networks only serve to perpetuate and reproduce the embedded masculinity of the entrepreneurship domain in the absence of appropriate activating mechanisms or ‘margins of intervention’

Entrepreneurial learning: the transmitting and embedding of entrepreneurial behaviours within the transgenerational entrepreneurial family

The aim of this paper is to explore how entrepreneurial behaviours are transmitted and embedded across generations within a Transgenerational Entrepreneurial Family (TEF). Although extant family business research has acknowledged the importance of learning in facilitating the transference of values, norms and attitudes, we know little about how learning embeds entrepreneurial behaviours at the family level. In order to address this, we adopted a longitudinal perspective of four TEF cases, drawing on numerous interviews, archival sources and observational instances. An iterative procedure for data analysis, which involved open coding, within-case analyses, second-order coding and cross-case analysis, was undertaken. Our findings illustrate how the implementation of entrepreneurial behaviours within TEFs was a process of negotiation and reification, informed by differences among families in response to critical incidents. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the presence of entrepreneurial behaviour enablers in each TEF has facilitated the perpetuation of entrepreneurial behaviours. Finally, we illuminate the importance of unlearning, the disregarding of prior learning to accommodate new information and behaviours, in the TEF context, where such entities are faced with unlearning paradoxes that subsequently influence their entrepreneurial behaviours