Pathways towards emancipation: Identity work and social entrepreneurship by and for marginalized communities

Strategy & Business Policy

Speaker: Sophie Bacq

Associate Professor-Kelly School of Bussiness Indiana University

Conference  Jouy-en-Josas/Room T 30

Abstract

Social entrepreneurs from marginalized communities are often front and center to address the societal challenges that they and their community members experience. In this qualitative study, using the case of social entrepreneurs from a migrant background, we show how their identification with the marginalized community and their professional experience interact with the way they develop entrepreneurial actions leading to emancipatory outcomes for themselves and their communities. Our theoretical model illustrates the embedded nature of the process of emancipation and how they open up boundaries between the individual, community, and societal level. We contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by providing insight into the emancipatory pathways taken by marginalized social entrepreneurs inside and outside their communities and by expounding on the underlying mechanisms that they engage in to emancipate the self and other in the process, adding to scholars’ understanding of the heterogeneity of social entrepreneurial approaches.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship; emancipation; identity work; marginalized communities; migration