Entrepreneurial Diversity: Contextual Variety of Entrepreneurial Identities and Experiences

Abstract

This study explores entrepreneurial diversity through the analysis of everyday experiences of women entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial identity construction processes in relation to context and questions the manner in which entrepreneurial experiences and identities vary across contexts. Capitalizing on life story narratives of Turkish women entrepreneurs in two country contexts – Turkey as the country of origin and the Netherlands as the country of residence, we evaluate migration as a significant contextual element along with country-specific opportunity structures and look at what differences it makes with respect to entrepreneurial identities and experiences of these Turkish women entrepreneurs. We analyze the social, political, and institutional opportunity structures and the relationship between these opportunity structures and entrepreneurial identities and experiences in Turkey and the Netherlands comparatively. We propose that Turkish women entrepreneurs in Turkey engage in processes of ‘self-defense’, whereas in the Netherlands they engage in processes of ‘self-discovery’. The women in the Netherlands challenge existing opportunity structures either by providing alternative images of a Turkish migrant woman or questioning culturalist perspectives behind these opportunity structures. In Turkey, women entrepreneurs are more hesitant in challenging the opportunity structures. They either step down from their enterprises or downgrade their entrepreneurial identities in order to fulfill the requirements of these opportunity structures. This study contributes to the field of entrepreneurship by providing an extended understanding of the manners in which entrepreneurial identities and experiences vary across contexts.