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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 article explores the small unit of family business – being in business with one's spouse – in Scotland and New Zealand. With reference to social network theory, the research explores if the strong married relationship enhances business or inhibits it due to a hypothesised limiting effect on access to external networks. The paper thus measures the impact of networks on copreneurial business performance and explores perceptions of the copreneurial experience.

The research applies a mixed methodology. First, a quantitative sample of 301 small firms in Scotland and New Zealand is tested for variation in performance and social network reach between copreneurial, other types of family firms and firms with no family links. Thereafter, a qualitative study explores the experience of 101 copreneurs in the two countries, to which a thematic analysis is applied.

Networks are shown to be central influences on performance, but the paper finds no performance or network reach variation between copreneurial and other business. Nevertheless, copreneurship is perceived both positively and negatively by practitioners and testimonies include explicit reference to strategies to manage home/work tensions.

The paper contributes new data on performance in copreneurial firms in two international locations. Viewed through a social network theory lens, the research shows the utility of networks to business, family or otherwise. The paper also shows that the work/family interface in copreneurial firms is perceived both as an advantage and as a challenge and so requires careful management.

The paper refers to the drivers of social entrepreneurship and critically explores the notion that it is prompted by a personal mission to enable some social or ideologically motivated altruism. It refers to Shapero's Entrepreneurial Event Theory and the adaptation of it for social entrepreneurship in Mair and Noboa (2006) and develops these so that both agency and context may be considered.

Fieldwork comprised a qualitative sample of 12 life-story narratives of social entrepreneurs in Central Scotland. The location was chosen because of its reputation for support of social entrepreneurship, and the qualitative methodology allowed for a depth of inspection and analysis of complex and situational experiences.

Findings include observation of altruism but there are other drivers, including the appeal of the social entrepreneurship business model. Context emerges as a critical feature of social entrepreneurship too, including spurs for altruism and the human, financial and social capitals, skills and experiences of social entrepreneurs.

The paper finds that the social entrepreneurship process involves both agency and context and is complex, and for some, reflects a strategic approach similar to commercial entrepreneurship. The paper also proposes further adaptation to Entrepreneurial Event Theory to capture this complexity of the social entrepreneurship process.

There is, in the UK, increasing attention being paid to the potential of university education to facilitate high quality growth firms. While some commentators believe that this potential can be realised in the short term, many believe that only a long‐term view of the entrepreneurial potential of graduate entrepreneurship is feasible as new graduates lack the resources, skills and experience necessary for sustainability and growth of ventures. Like most university entrepreneurship “departments”, the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde examines the profile of students and outcome of entrepreneurship electives in terms of student ambition and motivation. Using data from this exercise along with data from a study of 2,000 Strathclyde alumni, an impression of potentiality and actual outcome of entrepreneurship electives is possible.

The purpose of this paper is to identify potential explanations on why motherhood affects the non-progression of women, in Cyprus, to the top of the organisational ladder.

For the purposes of the study a qualitative approach was taken and semi-structured interviews were used. The interviews were conducted with specific, preselected employment groups. These were chartered accountants from the Big Four (PWC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG) companies in Cyprus and academics working at the University of Cyprus.

It has been identified through the interviews that women in Cyprus are faced with impediments on their way to the upper levels of the organisational ladder. The reasons for this vary and one of the most important is the motherhood effect. In particular, the research suggests that cultural norms and perceptions that women should be the primary caregiver are a barrier to advancement for women and there is a lack of family friendly policies and childcare facilities at least in the organisations included in this study.

This paper sheds light into a previously under-researched area; gender equality in Cyprus. The author also denotes the problems a mother is faced with on her way to the top of the organisational ladder and that culture is of utmost importance with regards to the role of women in the society and the workplace in Cyprus and elsewhere.

There is an assumption that inadequate financial management practices are contributors to turbulence in the small firm sector; yet there have been few investigations into the factors that influence an owner‐manager’s approach and the processes involved in the evolution of strategy and associated learning in this area. Previous studies have adopted a comparative static approach that is survey‐based; we argue that these studies can only give limited insights. We adopt a comparative case study methodology to develop an evolutionary process view of financial management in small firms. Despite the increased attention paid to owner‐managers in the small firms sector, we know comparatively little about the process of financial management and how small firms learn and adjust strategy and decision‐making in this area. In this paper, we attempt to shed some light on the process issues within small firms from qualitative evidence collected as part of a programme of case study research with entrepreneurs and owner‐managers. We discuss case evidence and focus on how owner‐managers reach financial management decisions, how they learn and adjust behaviour within the entrepreneurship process.

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.