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The purpose of this paper is to set forth a conceptual model describing the actors and roles in ecosystems created to enable productive black entrepreneurship in the USA.

This paper provides a systematic literature review of entrepreneurship ecosystems. It further leverages such literature review by using an autoethnographic approach recommended by Guyotte and Kochacka (2016), drawing on the authors’ practical experience in studying, owning, educating or consulting employer businesses owned by persons of color in the USA and abroad.

Each actor in the ecosystem has practical wisdom and assets that can be shared and leveraged through interacting with the other actors either as role model institutions or capacity development institutions, thus mitigating social inequalities and boosting economic progress by extending entrepreneurial opportunities beyond those that are greatly resourced.

Our literature review is based on selected samples of relevant articles on entrepreneurship ecosystem research and ethnic minority entrepreneurship, and thus, is not exhaustive. The selection was partly influenced by the authors’ opinion of whether a given study was relevant or not to a black entrepreneurship ecosystem. There is the possibility that some relevant studies were excluded. Thus, other actors are encouraged to revise or adapt this model to inform their distinct roles and goals.

The proposed model can help actors involved in the operation or support of a black-owned business make optimal business decisions, enabling each actor to be instrumental in another’s understanding of how to facilitate the success of black American entrepreneurs and business owners and thus, deploy marketing campaigns to boost the visibility and role of each actor. These campaigns play a role in their entrepreneurial marketing efforts.

Responding to Gines and Sampson’s (2020) call, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to explicitly provide a comprehensive black entrepreneurship ecosystem model that identifies the actors, roles and activities that can help black Americans address social inequalities that limit their ability to become a successful employer business. The proposed model may aid in deepening the theoretical discussion on entrepreneurial ecosystems and be of inspiration for the future works of scholars and practitioners interested in the entrepreneurship and marketing interface.

A growing body of research finds that gig economy platforms use gamification to enhance managerial control. Focusing on technologically mediated forms of gamification, this literature reveals how platforms mobilize gig workers’ work effort by making the labour process resemble a game. This chapter contends that this tech-centric scholarship fails to fully capture the historical continuities between contemporary and much older occurrences of game-playing at work. Informed by interviews and participatory observations at two food delivery platforms in Amsterdam, I document how these platforms’ piece wage system gives rise to a workplace dynamic in which severely underpaid delivery couriers continuously employ game strategies to maximize their gig income. Reminiscent of observations from the early shop floor ethnographies of the manufacturing industry, I show that the game of gig income maximization operates as an indirect modality of control by (re)aligning the interests of couriers with the interests of capital and by individualizing and depoliticizing couriers’ overall low wage level. I argue that the new, algorithmic technologies expand and intensify the much older forms of gamified control by infusing the organizational activities of shift and task allocation with the logic of the piece wage game and by increasing the possibilities for interaction, direct feedback and immersion. My study contributes to the literature on gamification in the gig economy by interweaving it with the classic observations derived from the manufacturing industry and by developing a conceptualization of gamification in which both capital and labour exercise agency.

The purpose of this study was to explore the information behaviors (IBs) of performers and artisan/vendors in American Renaissance faires. This research is exploratory in nature and seeks to discover how existing IB theories, including embodied information practices, can explain the information seeking and use of performers and artisan vendors working in American Renaissance faires.

This study used semi-structured qualitative interviews with three artisan/vendors and 12 performers at Renaissance faires to explore their IBs around the roles at the festivals. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and analyzed from an exploratory framework, looking for how existing IB theories might explain the findings.

Although the participants in this study described information practices that were embodied and corporeal, they shared more experiences around the complex and fraught nature of information sharing within the Renaissance faire community. Information sharing prohibitions were related to power dynamics and the participants' roles as gig or contingent workers.

This was the first study to explore the IBs of Renaissance faire performers and artisan/vendors and as such, was exploratory in nature. The findings point to several areas for additional research.

The vast bulk of the discourse surrounding reproduction is centered on women. Yet, the rate of childlessness in the United Kingdom (and much of the world) is higher among men. Recently, there has been an increased focus on fatherhood and fathering in academia, policy, practice, and the general media. However, data on men who do not become fathers has been excluded and their experiences minimized and dismissed. Infertility research has shown that failure to achieve the high social status of parenthood has the similar effects on mental and physical health as a diagnosis of life-threatening illness. In this chapter, I will draw on two qualitative research studies to show how not achieving the pronatalist ideal of parenthood impacts on men’s identity, sense of self, behaviors, health and well-being and social networks across the life course. The workplace is an arena where people who do not fit socio-cultural norms and expectations are overtly and/or covertly stigmatized and discriminated against through policy, working practices and everyday interaction between groups and individuals. I will argue that failing to acknowledge men’s experience of non-reproduction has a significant impact on both individuals and institutions alike.

This chapter focusses on how qualitative research can capture the lived experiences of entrepreneurial individuals by exploring their subjective experiences. Traditional methods of data collection involve listening to what entrepreneurial individuals say and observing their actions, although particular attention to their feelings is often absent. To achieve data congruence and to gain a deeper understanding of their lived experiences, it is crucial to also take into consideration how they feel. This chapter will recount a confessional tale recorded during a recent field study in entrepreneurship that will shed light on the pivotal role that a researcher’s sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) trait can play during qualitative data collection in helping researchers becoming mindful of the feelings of entrepreneurial individuals, even when those feelings are not directly expressed by them. The introduction of the researcher’s SPS trait in promoting data congruence during qualitative data collection will be this chapter’s principal contribution.

This study aims to identify the factors to food safety certification adoption among farmers in Malaysia.

This study was conducted qualitatively using a method of interviewing with unstructured questions. To identify the factors that influence and prevent the adoption of food safety certification among Malaysian farmers, nine (n = 9) agricultural industrial experts were randomly chosen.

Based on data analysis using thematic analysis, the respondent highlighted 14 factors to food safety certification. Specifically, the most frequent determinant highlighted by the respondent is enforcement (12). Additionally, it has been proven that the identified factors aligned with existing theories: technology, organization and environment (TOE) framework and eco-innovation theory. These theories help researchers to create effective strategies and produce significant findings from their research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate food safety certification adoption among farmers in the Malaysian agriculture industry using the integration of the TOE framework and eco-innovation theory. The stakeholder is expected to receive the benefits of creating efficient campaigns to encourage more farmers to obtain food safety certification. This study provides further knowledge by improving the understanding of the processes involved in certification adoption, providing context-specific insights, best practices, policy guiding development and emphasizing the effects of certification on sustainability and competitiveness.

This study aims to explore the internationalization trajectory of emerging country digital economy ventures by specifically concentrating on how ambidexterity facilitates international market expansion. Further, this paper examines how these ventures develop dynamic capabilities by using their ambidextrous skills in the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE).

This study adopts a multiple-case research design where data were gathered from five digital economy ventures in Turkey, serving an international array of customers.

The analyses reveal that, to a large extent, internationalization is enabled by the extensive use of ambidextrous skills in the ecosystem domain. We found evidence for practicing exploration and exploitation while interacting with several ecosystem pillars grouped as founder-related, firm-related and business context-related factors. These interactions portray how ventures sense, seize and transform resources to support their international expansion.

This study extends the current literature on internationalization by discussing the role of ambidexterity as a dynamic capability. The findings also demonstrate the EE as a construct to explain international entrepreneurial activity. Further, the study extends the existing literature by considering the calls for research on dynamic capabilities of international new ventures (INVs). Finally, the findings point to several implications both for practitioners and policymakers.

Entrepreneurial education is gaining traction in Ghana. The purpose of this chapter was to assess the influences of social enterprises in promoting entrepreneurial education, using Ghanaian social enterprises as a case study. The study adopted a qualitative research approach. A multiple case study analysis examined the influences of social enterprises in Ghana. Four in-depth qualitative case studies offer insight into social enterprise practices. Sustainability, innovation, control and employment issues stand out as key effects of Ghanaian social enterprise practices. The social practice theory framework is used to draw the linkages of the structure and agency relationships. Sustainability emerges as the most dominant impact of social enterprise practice followed by innovation, control and employment. These four descriptive terms summarise the universal effects of Ghanaian social enterprises' practices. The study identifies and assesses the role of social enterprises in social entrepreneurial education in addressing social ills and environmental challenges facing Ghana. The emphasis placed on each of the identified four constructs describes the plausible roles of Ghana's social enterprises in achieving productive entrepreneurship through entrepreneurship education. The result shows the pursuit of multiple practices is a common feature of social enterprises. The limitations of the study stem from methodological approach as it is qualitative approach bias and a single country case. Likewise, the subjectivities of the samples direct the results of the study. The study draws the attention of stakeholders and policymakers to the goodwill of social entrepreneurship education in Ghana. Many studies have been conducted on entrepreneurial education in the contextual setting of this study. This present study focused on the practices of social enterprises in Ghana that influences entrepreneurial education.