Emancipation through digital entrepreneurship? A critical realist analysis

Angela Martinez Dy, Lee Martin, Susan Marlow

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)
509 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Digital entrepreneurship is presented in popular discourse as a means to empowerment and greater economic participation for under-resourced and socially marginalised people. However, this emancipatory rhetoric relies on a flat ontology that does not sufficiently consider the enabling conditions needed for successful digital enterprise activity. To empirically illustrate this argument, we examine three paired cases of UK women digital entrepreneurs, operating in similar sectors but occupying contrasting social positionalities. The cases are comparatively analysed through an intersectional feminist lens using a critical realist methodological framework. By examining the relationships between digital entrepreneurship, social positionality, and structural and agential enabling conditions, we interrogate the notion of digital entrepreneurship as an emancipatory phenomenon producing liberated workers.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)585-608
JournalOrganization
Volume25
Issue number5
Early online date19 Jun 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2018

Keywords

  • barriers
  • critical realism
  • digital
  • enterprise
  • entrepreneurship
  • internet
  • marginality
  • resources
  • women

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