Cumulative intersectional exclusion: a process theory of entrepreneurial inequality

Abstract

Entrepreneurship scholarship has recently built a sizeable conversation around entrepreneurs who operate from positions of structural disadvantage. This has enabled distinct research streams examining “missing”, “unconventional”, or “non-traditional” (OECD, 2021; Wu & Jung, 2008; Guercini & Cova, 2018), as well as those categorized by their structural precarity, such as “marginalized”, “disadvantaged”, or “vulnerable” entrepreneurs (Bates, 2011; Rouse & Jayawarna, 2006; Maalaoui et al., 2020). While these literatures employ different terminologies, they converge on three established insights. First, structural barriers linked to class, gender, ethnicity, migration status, or disability systematically restrict access to the financial, human, and social capital that mainstream entrepreneurial theory often treats as readily available to any entrepreneur (Fairlie & Robb, 2009; Bakker & McMullen, 2023). Second, many of these entrepreneurs start their venture not because they have identified lucrative market gaps but because wage labor is blocked or precarious, making entrepreneurship a necessity-driven response to exclusion from formal employment (Williams et al., 2006; Kautonen et al., 2010). Third, empirical studies document distinctive adaptive practices such as bricolage, reliance on community networks, and mission-oriented value creation enable entrepreneurs to pursue autonomy, household financial security, or impact rather than rapid growth and profit maximization (Baker & Nelson, 2005; Desa, 2012). These findings have challenged the once-dominant narrative of the Silicon Valley entrepreneur archetype (Saxenian, 1991; Zankl & Grimes, 2024; Ogbor, 2000) with a view of entrepreneurship as a socially embedded process in which disadvantage shapes both the motivations for and the trajectories of new venture creation.