The relationship between disability and entrepreneurial identity through the lens of intersectionality

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14267/VEZTUD.2023.10.03

Keywords:

intersectionality, identity, entrepreneurs with disabilities

Abstract

Intersectional entrepreneurship research is becoming increasingly widespread; however, people with disabilities are still an invisible minority in this area. In this qualitative research with entrepreneurs with disabilities, the authors investigated how their identity construction evolved at the intersection of entrepreneurship and disability. The results show that at least two distinct strategies play a role: the strategy of preserving contradictions and the strategy of resolving them. While mainstream entrepreneurial discourse affected the identity construction of entrepreneurs with disabilities through ableist trends, distancing from peers and the rejection and removal of disability as a negative identity marker play a role in the shaping of their positive identity.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Carmen Svastics, Eötvös Loránd University

assistant lecturer

Anna Laura Hidegh, Corvinus University of Budapest

associate professor

Sára Csillag, Budapest Business University

professor

Zsuzsanna Győri, Budapest Business University

associate professor

References

Adeeko, N., & Treanor, L. (2022). Negotiating stigmatised identities: Enterprising refugee women in the United Kingdom. International Small Business Journal, 40(1), 23–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242621997033

Ahl, H., & Marlow, S. (2012). Exploring the dynamics of gender, feminism and entrepreneurship: Advancing debate to escape a dead end? Organization, 19(5), 543–562.

Aldrich, H. E., & Ruef, M. (2018). Unicorns, gazelles, and other distractions on the way to understanding real entrepreneurship in the United States. Academy of Management Perspectives, 34(2), 458-472. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2017.0123

Artiles, A. (2013). Untangling the racialization of disabilities: An intersectionality critique across disability models. Du Bois Review, 10(2), 329–347. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742058X13000271

Aulet, B. (2013). Disciplined Entrepreneurship 24 Steps to a Successful Startup. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Aulet, B., & Murray, F. (2013). A Tale of Two Entrepreneurs: Understanding Differences in the Types of Entrepreneurship in the Economy. Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Bagheri, A., Azizi, M., & Fard, F. M. (2015). Managerial Skills Required by Entrepreneurs with Physical and Mobility Disabilities. International Journal of Management Sciences, 5(8), 571–581.

Bailey, M., & Mobley, I. A. (2019). A black feminist disability framework. GENDER & SOCIETY, 33(1), 19-40. https://www.buffalo.edu/content/dam/www/genderin/Black%20Feminist%20Disability%20Framework.pdf

Barrett, R., & Vershinina, N. (2017). Intersectionality of ethnic and entrepreneurial identities: a study of postwar Polish entrepreneurs in an English city. Journal of Small Business Management, 55(3), 430–443. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsbm.12246

Berghs, M., & Dyson, S. (2020). Intersectionality and employment in the United Kingdom: Where are all the Black disabled people? Disability & Society, 37(4), 543-566. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2020.1829556

Booysen, L. A. E. (2018). Workplace Identity Construction: An Intersectional-Identity-Cultural Lens. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190224851.013.47

Brown, R. L., & Moloney, M. E. (2018). Intersectionality, work, and well-being: the effects of gender and disability. Gender & Society, 33(1), 94–122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243218800636

Calás, M. B., Smircich, L., & Holvino, E. (2014). Theorizing gender-and-organization: Changing Times… Changing Theories? In S. Kumra, R. Simpson, & R. J. Burke (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Gender in Organizations (pp. 1–45). Oxford University Press.

Campbell, F. K. (2009). Contours of ableism. The Production of Disability and Abledness. Palgrave Macmillan. Collins, P. H. (2020). Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. Polity Press.

Cooney, T. (2008). Entrepreneurs with Disabilities: Profile of a Forgotten Minority. Irish Business Journal, 4(1), 119–129. https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1041&context=buschmarart

Cooper, D. R., & Emory, C. W. (1995). Business Research Method. McGraw-Hill.

Corlett, S., & Mavin, S. (2014). Intersectionality, identity and identity work: Shared tenets and future research agendas for gender and identity studies. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 29(5), 258- 276. https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-12-2013-0138

Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, Identity politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039

Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. SAGE.

Csillag, S., Győri, Z., & Svastics, C. (2019). Long and winding road? Barriers and supporting factors as perceived by entrepreneurs with disabilities. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, 13(1–2), 42–63. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEC-11-2018-0097

Csillag, S., Győri, Z., & Svastics, C. (2020). Vaktában vállalkozni? Fogyatékossággal élő vállalkozók a hazai munkaerőpiacon. Vezetéstudomány, 51(4), 26-39. https://doi.org/10.14267/VEZTUD.2020.04.03

Csillag, S., Svastics, C., Győri, Z., & Hidegh, A. L. (2021). A tökéletes test mítosza: Az épségizmus mint a fogyatékossággal élő emberek munkaerőpiaci marginalizációját erősítő ideológia. Socio.Hu Társadalomtudományi Szemle, 11(3), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.18030/socio.hu.2021.3.1

Drummond, J. D., & Brotman, S. (2014). Intersecting and embodied identities: A queer woman’s experience of disability and sexuality. Sex Disability, 32, 533-549. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-014-9382-4

Erevelles, N., & Minear, A. (2010). Unspeakable offenses: untangling race and disability in discourses of intersectionality. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 4(2), 127–145. https://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2010.11

Erogul, M. S., Rod, M., & Barragan, S. (2019). Contextualizing Arab female entrepreneurship in the United Arab Emirates. Culture and Organization, 25(5), 317–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2016.1244824

Essers, C., & Benschop, Y. (2007). Enterprising identities: Female entrepreneurs of Moroccan or Turkish origin in the Netherlands. Organization Studies, 28(1), 49–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840606068256

Essers, C., & Benschop, Y. (2009). Muslim businesswomen doing boundary work: The negotiation of Islam, gender and ethnicity within entrepreneurial contexts. Human Relations, 62(3), 403–423. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726708101042

Essers, C., Doorewaard, H., & Benschop, Y. (2013). Family ties: Migrant female business owners doing identity work on the public–private divide. Human Relations, 66(12), 1645–1665. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726713486820

Essers, C., & Tedmanson, D. (2014). Upsetting ‘Others’ in the Netherlands: Narratives of Muslim Turkish Migrant Businesswomen at the Crossroads of Ethnicity, Gender and Religion. Gender, Work & Organization, 21(4), 353–367. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12041

Fylling, I., & Melboe, L. (2019). Culturalisation, Homogenisation, Assimilation? Intersectional Perspectives on the Life Experiences of Sami People with Disabilities. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 21(1), 89–99. https://doi.org/10.16993/sjdr.575

Garland-Thomson, R. (1997). Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature. Columbia University Press.

Gerschick, T. J. (2000). Toward a Theory of Disability and Gender. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 25(4), 1263–1268. https://doi.org/10.1086/495558

Gódány, Z. (2018). Női vállalkozók – kutatási területek. Elméleti áttekintés. Vezetéstudomány, 49(4), 58–67. https://doi.org/10.14267/VEZTUD.2018.04.06

Goethals, T., De Schauwer, E., & Van Hove, G. (2015). Weaving intersectionality into disability studies research: inclusion, reflexivity and anti-essentialism. Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies, 2(1–2), 75-94. https://doi.org/10.11116/jdivegendstud.2.1-2.0075

Hancock, A.-M. (2007). When multiplication doesn’t equal quick addition: examining intersectionality as a research paradigm. Perspectives on Politics, 5(1), 63–79. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592707070065

Hankivsky, O., Grace, D., Hunting, G., Giesbrecht, M., Fridkin, A., Rudrum, S., Ferlatte, O., & Clark, N. (2014). An intersectionality-based policy analysis framework: Critical reflections on a methodology for advancing equity. International Journal for Equity in Health, 13, 119. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-014-0119-x

Harvey, A. M. (2005). Becoming entrepreneurs: intersections of race, class, and gender at the black beauty salon. Gender & Society, 19(6), 789–808. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243205280104

Haslett, D., Choi, I., & Smith, B. (2020). Para athlete activism: A qualitative examination of disability activism through paralympic sport in Ireland. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 47, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2019.101639

Heizmann, H., & Liu, H. (2020). “Bloody Wonder Woman!”: Identity performances of elite women entrepreneurs on Instagram. Human Relations, 75(3), 411-440. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726720979034

Hernández-Saca, D. I., Gutmann Kahn, L., & Cannon, M. A. (2018). Intersectionality dis/ability research: how dis/ability research in education engages intersectionality to uncover the multidimensional construction of dis/abled experiences. Review of Research in Education, 42(1), 286–311. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X18762439

Hidegh, A. L., Svastics, C., Csillag, S., & Győri, Z. (2023). The intersectional identity work of entrepreneurs with disabilities: Constructing difference through disability, gender, and entrepreneurship. Culture and Organization, 29(3), 226-241. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2023.2201006

Hidegh, A. L., Svastics, C., Győri, Z., & Csillag, S. (2022). The lived experience of freedom among entrepreneurs with disabilities. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 28(9), 357–375. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-03-2022-0222

Hirschmann, N. J. (2012). Disability as a new frontier for feminist intersectionality research. Politics and Gender, 8(3), 396-405. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X12000384

Jammaers, E., & Zanoni, P. (2020). Unexpected entrepreneurs: The identity work of entrepreneurs with disabilities. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 32(9–10), 879–898. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2020.1842913

Jávor, R., Ellis, R., & B. Erdős, M. (2022). Drifting, not driving. identity structure analysis to explore entrepreneurial identity. Vezetéstudomány / Budapest Management Review, 53(5), 2–15. https://doi.org/10.14267/VEZTUD.2022.05.01

King, T., Shields, M., Shakespeare, T., Milner, A., & Kavanagh, A. (2019). An intersectional approach to understandings of mental health inequalities among men with disabilities. SSM-Population Health, 9, 100464. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100464

Knight, J. (2015). The evolving motivations of ethnic entrepreneurs. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, 9(2), 114–131. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEC-10-2013-0031

Loja, E., Costa, M. E., Hughes, B., & Menezes, I. (2013). Disability, embodiment and ableism: Stories of resistance. Disability & Society, 28(2), 190–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2012.705057

McGrath, C., Rudman, D. L., Polgar, J., Spafford, M., & Trenrham, B. (2016). Negotiating positive aging in the presence of age-related vision loss (ARVL): The shaping and perpetuation of disability. Journal of Aging Studies, 39, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2016.08.002

Merolla, D. M., Serpe, R. T., Stryker, S., & Schultz, P. W. (2012). Structural precursors to identity processes: the role of proximate social structures. Social Psychology Quarterly, 75(2), 149–172. https://doi.org/10.1177/0190272511436352

Mik-Meyer, N. (2016). Othering, ableism and disability: A discursive analysis of co-workers’ construction of colleagues with visible impairments. Human Relations, 69(6), 1341–1363. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726715618454

Miller, R. (2018). Toward intersectional identity perspectives on disability and LGBTQ identities in higher education. Journal of College Student Development, 59(3), 327-346. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2018.0030

Moodley, J., & Graham, L. (2015). The importance of intersectionality in disability and gender studies. Agenda, 29(2), 24-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2015.1041802

Ostrander, N. (2008). When identities collide: Masculinity, disability and race. Disability & Society, 23(6), 585-597. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687590802328451

Parker Harris, S., Renko, M., & Caldwell, K. (2014). Social entrepreneurship as an employment pathway for people with disabilities: Exploring political–economic and socio-cultural factors. Disability & Society, 29(8), 1275–1290. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2014.924904

Richard, S., & Hennekam, S. (2021). Constructing a positive identity as a disabled worker through social comparison: The role of stigma and disability characteristics. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103528

Romero, M., & Valdez, Z. (2016). Introduction to the special issue: Intersectionality and entrepreneurship. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 39(9), 1553–1565. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2016.1171374

Salamzadeh, A., & Kawamorita Kesim, H. (2017). The enterprising communities and startup ecosystem in Iran. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, 11(4), 456–479. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEC-07-2015-0036

Sebestyén, Z. (2014). Interszekcionalitás, mint esélyegyenlőségi koncepció, avagy genderkutatás más szemszögből. METSZETEK, 1, 276–291. https://metszetek.unideb.hu/files/201401_14_sebestyen_zsuzsa_0.pdf

Shifrer, D., & Frederick, A. (2019). Disability at the intersections. Sociology Compass, 13, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12733

Silverman, D. (2008). Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook. SAGE.

Stirzaker, R., & Sitko, R. (2018). The older entrepreneurial self: Intersecting identities of older women entrepreneurs. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 25(8), 1748–1765. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-12-2017-0497

Watermeyer, B., & Swartz, L. (2022). Disability and the problem of lazy intersectionality. Disability & Society, 38(2), 362-366. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2022.2130177

Weldon, S. L. (2008). Intersectionality. In G. Goertz & A. Mazur (Eds.), Politics, Gender and Concepts (pp. 193–218). Cambridge University Press.

Williams, J., & Patterson, N. (2019). New directions for entrepreneurship through a gender and disability lens. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 25(8), 1706–1726. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-12-2017-0499

Zheng, J., Pei, Y., & Gao, Y. (2020). Social media as a Disguise and an Aid: Disabled women in the cyber workforce in China. Social Inclusion, 8(2), 104-113. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v8i2.2646

Downloads

Published

2023-10-16

How to Cite

Svastics, C., Hidegh, A. L., Csillag, S., & Győri, Z. (2023). The relationship between disability and entrepreneurial identity through the lens of intersectionality. Vezetéstudomány Budapest Management Review, 54(10), 29–39. https://doi.org/10.14267/VEZTUD.2023.10.03

Issue

Section

Articles

Most read articles by the same author(s)