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This paper aims to explore experiences of poverty in the enterprise amongst people with a disability or long-term health challenges. This paper departs somewhat from established wisdom about economic or financial drivers of enterprise by exploring why a disabled individual would start and continue to operate in a business where that business is providing income-poverty. In so doing, it subscribes to the idea that the enterprise involves reflexive engagement of an agent in context where value(s) of the enterprise other than financial may be prioritised.

The research draws from a larger qualitative study of self-employment and poverty in which half the sample (21 individuals) identified as experiencing disability or poor health. Semi-structured interviews were conducted these participants and a thematic analysis with specific reference to Theory of Venturing, which proposes that the value of enterprise is reflexively and idiosyncratically understood and morphogenetic, was used to explore itinerant issues, experiences and challenges.

In line with the theory, findings include that disability and poor health are observed to be both prompters and shapers of an enterprise and that the value of enterprise is not always primarily associated with financial wealth for the participants in the sample. Flexibility and autonomy are attractive features of self-employment for some in the face of an inflexible and sometimes hostile labour market.

This paper demonstrates that engaging in enterprise is motivated by an agent's reflexive evaluation of value(s) and how that enables them to navigate their structural condition(s); this contribution enhances theoretical approaches to enterprise and business creation by illuminating some of its diversity. This paper also contributes some much needed data about a group who are under-represented in the enterprise literature despite being over-represented in practice. There are implications and recommendations for policy and practice in the exposure and analysis of the issues emerging.

This chapter evaluates the motivations that inform engagement in enterprise creation and operation by individuals experiencing poverty. An in-depth, empirical qualitative exploration of motives for enterprise amongst a sample of 42 people in the UK who are experiencing poverty conditions is presented. The results demonstrate that traditional push–pull thinking about enterprise motivation lacks nuance, specifically that the financial motive previously assumed to be prioritised in a context of resource deficit, in this research it was not. Second, push–pull motivations and intersections with intrinsic–extrinsic motivations are mapped, creating and developing a more refined understanding of enterprise motivations. Third, contexts and circumstances are recurrent factors reflexively informing motivations of those experiencing poverty and engaging in enterprise creation and operation.

The image of Mel Gibson and Hugh Jackman (as Wolverine) in the Mad Max and X-Men franchises represents traditional heroic action masculinity. This chapter explores the roles of female action heroes in defying patriarchy and subverting action film genre stereotypes in male-dominated franchises. In contrast to past characterisations of Max, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) provides both a departure to the role of Max as the male saviour seeking vengeance, by focusing on Imperator Furiosa and offering space for a portrayal of femininity characterised by inclusivity and tolerance. In Logan (2017), the decay of Wolverine is central to the narrative. Rather than the portrayal of an immortal hypermasculine hero in the previous X-Men films (with emphasis on men in X-Men), a new female mutant Laura assumes his mantle. In this context, I consider the gender roles and depiction of women in these films, and how they may be read as offering a futuristic vision of utopia in dystopian narrative worlds.

In the distant future, the social and economic systems build by the patriarchy are crumbling, causing an environmental crisis and divisive society, where people who are different (mutants) are hunted down. Mad Max: Fury Road and Logan both offer an alternative depiction of women and girls, providing new perspectives to navigate an uncertain dystopian world through fierce female warriors Furiosa, and mutant girl Laura. Ultimately this chapter demonstrates that survival in the post-apocalyptic and dystopian worlds represented in Mad Max: Fury Road and Logan may be achieved via a subversive feminist solution/utopia to the crisis of masculinity.

This conceptual paper has two central aims: to critically analyse the potential of intersectionality theory as a means by which to understand aspects of context in entrepreneurship studies, and advocate for the value of a realist perspective and mixed methods approaches to produce better intersectional research on entrepreneurship. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Highlighting context as an emerging topic within entrepreneurship literature, the paper examines how drawing upon notions of intersectionality and positionality can help to explain the social context for entrepreneurial activity and outcomes, particularly in terms of agency and resources.

The paper complements and extends existing intersectional approaches to entrepreneurship studies by introducing Archer’s critical realist philosophical perspective on agency and Anthias’ positional perspective on resource access, considering the usefulness of realism and mixed methods approaches for such work, and outlining a methodologically informed potential research agenda for the area.

The paper offers a theoretical foundation for researchers to begin systematically exploring social entrepreneurial context by accounting for the effects of overarching intersecting structures such as gender, race, and socio-economic class (amongst others), presents empirical methods through which these social-structural influences, and the degree of their impact, can be identified and analysed, and suggests a philosophically robust means of conceptualising how, in combination with agency, they influence essential aspects of entrepreneurial activity.

Studies on women’s entrepreneurship in Morocco are scarce, despite the potential of women for the country’s economy. This research takes place in a socio-cultural environment searching for a compromise between tradition and modernity. Families occupy a prominent place in Morocco, directly influencing women’s activities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of family in Moroccan women’s entrepreneurial success.

The qualitative research is based on 60 interviews with women entrepreneurs in Morocco, including women business owners, women professionals and also women co-operators who have not been documented until now, due to data accessibility. It is diversified in terms of personal, family and professional characteristics. The analysis uses an intersectionality framework taking gender and social class into consideration.

The results highlight three categories of women entrepreneur: the “elite”, the “self-made women” and the “co-operators”. Each category is characterised by specific familial and professional realities, underpinned by differentiated dynamics in terms of gender and social class.

The study, from a practical point of view, contributes to a better understanding of the differentiated realities encountered in terms of women’s entrepreneurship, in the Moroccan context.

Studies in developing countries tend to consider women entrepreneurs as a homogeneous group. This research highlights the fact that family support, women entrepreneurs’ practices and their role in entrepreneurial success depend on the background situations in terms of gender and social class. It also contributes to the entrepreneurial success field, revealing different definitions and perceptions of success among women entrepreneurs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how gender, interacting with race and ethnicity, plays a role in women entrepreneurship process and how women entrepreneurs’ experiences shape and are shaped by their communities.

First, five-year 2010-2014 American Community Survey data are analyzed. Then, in-depth interview and focus groups discussion are conducted with 40 women business owners and the data are analyzed using the software package QSR Nvivo.

Women entrepreneurs face the challenges and the difficulties of managing both family roles and work. However, they have strategically negotiating with their multiple roles through entrepreneurship to gain independence and purpose, as well as the opportunity to contribute to society. In particular, their embeddedness within local communities provides meanings, opportunities, and functional strategies for their entrepreneurial activities.

The study is based on only one study area. A larger sample size with more cases from multiple study areas can provide further insights.

Findings from this study have profound implications for practices of equitable growth, community development, and urban planning under the rapid growth of immigration.

First, extending focus on the social identity of “motherhood,” this study argues for considering multiple social identities of women entrepreneurs and the intersectionality of multiple identities. Second, it extends the traditional focus of entrepreneurship studies from a singular focus on economic growth to include additional dimensions of work-life balance and sense of community. Third, place is not only a context but also acts powerfully into the entrepreneurial process. It argues that women entrepreneurs and their businesses are deeply embedded in local communities as their multiple identities are shaped at both home and work.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the developing literature on entrepreneurship and identity by exploring the multidimensionality of older (50+) British women entrepreneurs’ identity. By using positionality as a lens, greater insight into the complexity of the lived multiple identities of older women entrepreneurs is explored.

A total of 12 in-depth qualitative interviews took place throughout the UK seeking to capture the various experiences of how older women engage with intersecting discourses surrounding enterprise culture and ageing whilst constructing their identities.

Overall, findings evidence the outcomes of these intersecting dimensions are largely positive and demonstrate the life enhancing benefits of these overlaps. Whilst tension was evidenced between age and how these women entrepreneurs perceive their entrepreneurial identities, as well as some constraints between identity as “mother” and “entrepreneur”, overall synergy was found between the intersection of older women entrepreneurs’ social identities and their entrepreneurial identity. It must be noted, however, that this synergy was heavily reliant on context and stage of life for these women.

This paper challenges the traditional discourse of entrepreneurship, which produces a homogenous view of entrepreneurs and omits key historical and social variables in the process of identity formation. The current paper adds to increasing calls to develop more sophisticated ways of measuring and understanding entrepreneurship and its impacts. The authors echo calls throughout the most recent literature to move away from the agency agenda and pursue lines of enquiry that examine entrepreneurship as a process in contexts that are underpinned by both agency and external factors.