Contextualizing inclusive entrepreneurship: an intersectional perspective of women's entrepreneurship in Sweden
Aziza Al Ghafri, Beldina Owalla, Carol EkinsmythPurpose
Entrepreneurship research has traditionally underrepresented both gender and ethnicity, privileging the experiences of men from dominant cultural and social groups. Drawing on intersectionality and translocational positionality (TP) theories, this study examines the experiences of women immigrant entrepreneurs (WIEs) in Sweden, a country celebrated for its gender equality and inclusive entrepreneurship policies yet marked by persistent structural inequalities.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative research design was adopted, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with WIEs in Stockholm to explore the role of context in influencing their perceptions and experiences.
Findings
Findings illuminate inclusive entrepreneurship as a process of situated negotiation rather than a stable policy outcome. Inclusion is not simply achieved through access or visibility; it is continuously produced – and contested – through women's everyday efforts to perform legitimacy, cope with exclusion and build alternative infrastructures of belonging.
Originality/value
Our study advances inclusive entrepreneurship research by capturing the fluid interplay between structure and agency in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Theoretically, we make two contributions. Firstly, by integrating intersectionality's structural critique with TP's attention to mobility, temporarity and context, we reframe inclusion as an ongoing process of negotiation among actors, institutions and shifting identity positions. Secondly, we show how marginalized actors simultaneously reproduce, resist and reconfigure the systems that constrain them, thereby offering a more dynamic, context-aware account of agency. Our findings have implications for designing policy interventions that move beyond access-oriented approaches towards more structural, relational forms of support in Sweden and comparable contexts.