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1 – 10 of over 4000As a result of a plethora of scholarly articles by feminist scholars of entrepreneurship, it is now widely accepted that the notion of entrepreneurship is ideologically skewed…
Abstract
Purpose
As a result of a plethora of scholarly articles by feminist scholars of entrepreneurship, it is now widely accepted that the notion of entrepreneurship is ideologically skewed towards masculine ideology. Although this body of work has been quietly acknowledged, it has not invoked a reply, or refutation, from male entrepreneurship scholars. Nor has it led to an increase in studies about the influence of masculinity on entrepreneurial behaviour or identity. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to begin to address this by analysing an alternative social construction of entrepreneurship relating to how masculinity influences entrepreneurial identity in print. The data used are text from the thinly veiled biographical novel Cityboy written in an aggressive and unashamedly masculine style. Whilst the focus is not upon entrepreneurs per se, it is upon the male‐oriented entrepreneurial institution that is the “city.”
Design/methodology/approach
The methodological approach used in this paper is that of biographical analysis; supported by a supplementary analysis of similar biographies of traders; this is triangulated by photographs downloaded from the internet. This approach allows rich data to be collected from practical sources permitting a comparative approach to be adopted. The approach has obvious limitations but is a practical method.
Findings
The results from this empirical study are tentative but illustrate that the socially constructed nature of the “city trader” as an entrepreneurial identity is portrayed as being a manly pursuit; and how such discrimination is inherent within an institutionalised systemic behaviour in which men are encouraged to be risk‐takers and players. This institutionalised “boyish” behaviour is used to build up a masculine identity rooted in Thatcherite enterprise culture. Although no clear conclusion can be articulated because of the subjective nature of the interpretation, links with accepted entrepreneurship theory are drawn. It is thus an exploratory study into the pervasiveness of masculine doxa in constructing entrepreneurial identity. The paper makes an incremental contribution by acknowledging the power of male dominance in shaping entrepreneurial realities albeit the conclusions are mainly drawn from one book.
Research limitations/implications
This paper opens up the field for further studies of skewed masculine entrepreneurial identities under the rubric of the “bad boy entrepreneur.”
Originality/value
In critically discussing and acknowledging the male genderedness of entrepreneurial identity in a particular system, this paper makes a contribution to the understanding of the socially constructed nature of how to tell, understand and appreciate stories which present an entrepreneurial identity. Granted the hero of the story is fictional but the overlaps with the accepted storylines of entrepreneur stories are illuminating. The paper provides another heuristic device for understanding the social construction of gendered entrepreneurial identities, making it of interest to feminist scholars of entrepreneurship and to social constructionists alike.
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Jacquie McGraw, Rebekah Russell-Bennett and Katherine M. White
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of masculine identity in generating value destruction and diminished well-being in a preventative health service.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of masculine identity in generating value destruction and diminished well-being in a preventative health service.
Design/methodology/approach
This research used five focus groups with 39 Australian men aged between 50 and 74 years. Men’s participation in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program informed the sample frame. In total, 12 Jungian male archetypes were used to identify different masculine identities.
Findings
Thematic analysis of the data revealed three themes of masculinity that explain why men destroy value by avoiding the use of a preventative health services including: rejection of the service reduces consumer disempowerment and emasculation, active rejection of resources creates positive agency and suppressing negative self-conscious emotions protects the self.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations include the single context of bowel cancer screening. Future research could investigate value destruction in other preventative health contexts such as testicular cancer screening, sexual health screening and drug abuse.
Practical implications
Practical implications include fostering consumer empowerment when accessing services, developing consumer resources to create positive agency and boosting positive self-conscious emotions by promoting positive social norms.
Originality/value
This research is the first known study to explore how value is destroyed in men’s preventative health using the perspective of gender identity. This research also is the first to explore value destruction as an emotion regulation strategy.
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Rowena Ortiz‐Walters, Kimberly‐Ann Eddleston and Kathleen Simione
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of gender identity on protégés' satisfaction with mentoring relationships. More specifically, it aims to investigate whether or…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of gender identity on protégés' satisfaction with mentoring relationships. More specifically, it aims to investigate whether or not a protégé's feminine or masculine identity, by virtue of emphasizing different criteria, roles, and preferences, impacts his or her satisfaction with the performance of a mentor.
Design/methodology/approach
Managers and/or professionals, identified by in‐career MBA students at large universities in the East, completed surveys to assess relationship satisfaction as a mentoring outcome.
Findings
The results of this study indicate that masculine protégés, who strongly identify with their career roles, report being more satisfied with mentors who provide career development support. Conversely, feminine protégés, who measure career success using socio‐emotional‐based criteria, report being more satisfied with mentors who provide psychosocial support.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited in its generalizability due to the type of sample studied. The sample consisted of managers from a variety of male‐dominated occupations. In addition, since the data were self‐reported on a single survey, common method bias may also be an issue.
Practical implications
Despite limitations, the study implies that assessment of gender identity and related skills can provide organizations with more effective guidance and matching of mentors and protégés to maximize perceived satisfaction on the part of the protégé.
Originality/value
Although many studies have investigated a variety of factors that affect mentoring, few have examined the influence of gender identity on the functioning of these relationships.
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Peter T. Coleman, Jennifer S. Goldman and Katharina Kugler
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how people's gender‐role identities (self‐identified masculinity and femininity) affect their perceptions of the emotional role of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how people's gender‐role identities (self‐identified masculinity and femininity) affect their perceptions of the emotional role of the humiliated victim in conflicts (and the norms surrounding the role), and how these perceptions affect the negativity and aggressiveness of their responses and the degree to which they ruminate over conflict and remain hostile over time.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper builds on literature on humiliation, aggression, gender, and rumination and presents a correlational scenario study with 96 male graduate students from a large Northeastern University.
Findings
Males with high‐masculine gender‐role identities are more likely to perceive the social norms surrounding a humiliating conflictual encounter as privileging aggression, and to report intentions to act accordingly, than males with high‐feminine gender‐role identities. Furthermore, participants are more likely to ruminate about the conflict, and therefore maintain their anger and aggressive intentions a week later, when they perceive the situation to privilege aggression.
Research limitations/implications
This paper sheds light on how aspects of peoples' identities can affect their perceptions of social norms (i.e. whether or not aggression is condoned), and degrees of dysphoric rumination and aggression in conflict. Subsequent research should investigate the social conditions influencing these processes.
Originality/value
Research on the psychology of humiliation has identified it as a central factor in many intractable conflicts. However, this is the first study to begin to specify the nature of this relationship and to investigate it in a laboratory setting.
In this paper, I show how a consideration of legitimacy processes is of theoretical use in addressing two current issues in status research. First, I investigate under what…
Abstract
In this paper, I show how a consideration of legitimacy processes is of theoretical use in addressing two current issues in status research. First, I investigate under what conditions the contrast between the sex composition of a work group and the sex composition of an organization’s authority structure may trigger the salience of gender status in task groups. I argue that this contrast will make gender status salient when an evaluation from an authority figure outside the group creates inconsistency and uncertainty in the current status structure within the group. Delegitimation of a superior is one such process that produces this inconsistency and uncertainty. Second, I examine under what conditions status position compared to identity will more likely stimulate behavior among work group members. I argue that the legitimation of the superior and the group’s status order reduce the likelihood that group members will pursue status inconsistent, identity behaviors. Delegitimation, however, increases opportunities for acting in identity consistent ways and reduces the costs for doing so, thus enhancing the likelihood of identity-based behaviors.
Isabelle Ulrich and Elisabeth Tissier-Desbordes
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between men and brands and specifically how they configure their masculinities in relation to daily used brands.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between men and brands and specifically how they configure their masculinities in relation to daily used brands.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth interviews with projective technique were conducted with 20 men with different masculinities and sexual orientations to explore their practices regarding and relations to various product categories and brands.
Findings
First, this paper shows how men’s relationships to daily used brands vary according to different forms of masculinities, in a continuum apparently disconnected from sexual orientation. Men with “resistant” masculinities are strongly attached to choosing masculine brands; others with more hybrid masculinities are more open to feminine brands and do not care about brand gender. Second, this paper shows the importance of brand gender salience: Men with more traditional masculinities interpret brands through the prism of gender first and over-interpret gendered cues in brand execution. Third, feminine brands are considered as threats for men with traditional masculinities. Fourth, brand extensions to the opposite sex are criticized by men with more traditional masculinities but appreciated by men with hybrid masculinities, independently of sexual orientation.
Originality/value
This paper investigates the relationships between men and brand gender for daily used brands, by introducing a diversity of masculinities. Furthermore, it builds on a qualitative approach to capture individuals’ diverse masculinities. This helps capture the complexity of gender and better understand the relationships between men, masculinities and brands.
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Melvin Prince, Attila Yaprak, Mark Cleveland, Mark A.P. Davies, Alexander Josiassen, Andrea Nechtelberger, Martin Nechtelberger, Dayananda Palihawadana, Walter Renner, Sona Chovanova Supekova and Sylvia Von Wallpach
The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which personal values, moral foundations and gender-role identities affect, in sequence, consumers' constructions of their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which personal values, moral foundations and gender-role identities affect, in sequence, consumers' constructions of their ethnocentric and cosmopolitan orientations. Achieving a better understanding of the psychological makeup of consumer ethnocentrism and cosmopolitanism should help managers better design international market segmentation and brand positioning strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
The study's conceptual framework is anchored in attitude and values theories, and focuses on the social categorizations that consumers make and how these contribute to the formation of their ethnocentric and cosmopolitan orientations. Drawing data from consumers living in five European countries, we test our theoretical conjectures through structural equation modeling approaches, including multigroup analysis at the country level, as well as the identification and scrutiny of potential pan-European consumer segments.
Findings
Findings show that personal values, moral foundations and gender-role identities do exert direct and indirect (partially mediated) effects on the formation of consumers' ethnocentric and cosmopolitan orientations. These provide numerous insights for managers in terms of how they can segment domestic and international markets, as well as how to position products and communicate brand strategies.
Research limitations/implications
The study focused on consumers' personal and role identities and offers implications based on data gathered from a sample of five European countries. Future work should broaden this perspective by including other identity facets, such as religious and ethnic identities, as well as product-category and brand-specific outcomes, in order to help develop a more comprehensive picture of the psychology underpinning consumers' identity-related orientations, and their effects on consumer behavior. Future research should also study these issues in a broader geographical context, by including national markets that have culturally diverse populations as well as places with dissimilar cultural and economic profiles.
Originality/value
The study shows that individuals' personal values, moral foundations and gender roles have a strong effect on the formation of consumer ethnocentrism and consumer cosmopolitanism orientations. Consideration of how these antecedent constructs operate in concert to shape consumers' in- versus out-group orientations has been overlooked in the international marketing literature. Beyond the ramifications for theory, the study offers numerous substantive managerial implications in terms of how consumers are likely to respond to local and global/foreign products/brands based on these orientations.
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Nicholas Blagden and Christian Perrin
Masculinity in young men can be considered a dynamic risk factor. However, there is a lack of interventions designed to support men and young men to explore the ways in which the…
Abstract
Purpose
Masculinity in young men can be considered a dynamic risk factor. However, there is a lack of interventions designed to support men and young men to explore the ways in which the concept of masculinity contributes to shaping their individual identity. The purpose of this paper is to explore young offenders’ perceptions of a programme designed to address masculinity and criminogenic attitudes and evaluate whether the programme contributed to any personal change/development and what core learning they took from the course.
Design/methodology/approach
The research utilised a mixed-methods approach to address aims and objectives.
Findings
The quantitative results found that there was a pre-/post-course reduction in toughness and increase in self-esteem and risk-taking perceptions. The qualitative results identified four superordinate themes reconstruing masculine self-realisation awareness and reflection group dynamics and course relationships and unintended consequences. The course-assisted participants in helping to reconstrue aspects of being a man made them think about the future and allowed for participants to consider their possible and desired selves.
Research limitations/implications
The research has policy and practice implications for brief interventions targeted at young offenders.
Originality/value
The research evaluates a novel intervention aimed at addressing young offenders masculine beliefs and identities. The research has implications for working with this client group.
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The paper considers gender identities in higher education. It examines how people involved in university life engage in (re)creating gender identities and in (re)producing…
Abstract
The paper considers gender identities in higher education. It examines how people involved in university life engage in (re)creating gender identities and in (re)producing gender‐related expectations (and stereotypes) of managerial behaviour. The process of construction of feminine identities is explored through the discourses of academics from a UK university (mainly women who hold managerial positions). The paper reports findings from a series of in‐depth interviews with women managers (dean, associate deans and heads of departments) and with university academics (men and women) from a Business School, part of a large British new university. The school was of special interest because women held the majority of senior managerial posts. It appears that the process of construction of femininities is mainly developed around four (stereo‐)typical aspects generally associated with feminine management practices (multi‐tasking, supporting and nurturing, people and communication skills, and team‐work).
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To understand how research-participant relationships are formed in research settings through experiences and analyses of content-specific gendered identity practices.
Abstract
Purpose
To understand how research-participant relationships are formed in research settings through experiences and analyses of content-specific gendered identity practices.
Methodology/approach
I draw upon a school-based ethnographically informed study exploring the construction of masculinities among white working-class boys in three schools in South London, United Kingdom between 2009 and 2011. To access participants’ perceptions, I used a methodology of observation, focus groups, semi-structured interviews and visual methods.
Findings
Themes of gendered embodiment, physicality and performance play a part in the formation of relationships in this study. Furthermore, such themes play a role – to varying degrees – in researcher-participant relationship-building. In understanding relationship-building practices, I make connections to my own reflexivity accounting for the multifaceted nature of identities, lifestyles and perspectives present in researcher-participant interaction.
Originality/value
Throughout the fieldwork, constructs of gender, nationality and class all contributed to how relationships were built. In navigating the power relations innate to all relationship-building, I discuss how I capitalised on my outsider status in terms of nationality to neutralise certain elements of class and gender that were normative to my participants, but, simultaneously, draw upon my insider status in terms of knowledge of the locale, humour and clothing which contributed greatly to how the relationships were constructed and maintained.
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