Contextual Embeddedness Research Articles

The Strength and Scope of Chinese Guanxi in the UK: Exploring the Role of Contextual Embeddedness

The Strength and Scope of Chinese Guanxi in the UK: Exploring the Role of Contextual Embeddedness

Relationality, contextual embeddedness, and the inextricable self of the researcher in ethnographic interviewing.

Relationality, contextual embeddedness, and the inextricable self of the researcher in ethnographic interviewing.

Pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities is not a choice: the interplay between gender norms, contextual embeddedness, and (in)equality mechanisms in entrepreneurial contexts

PurposeAll entrepreneurs interact simultaneously with multiple entrepreneurial contexts throughout their entrepreneurial journey. This conceptual paper has two central aims: (1) it synthesises the current literature on gender and entrepreneurship, and (2) it increases our understanding of how gender norms, contextual embeddedness and (in)equality mechanisms interact within contexts. Illustrative contexts that are discussed include entrepreneurship education, business networks and finance.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper draws upon extant literature to develop its proposed conceptual framework. It provides suggestions for systemic policy interventions as well as pointing to promising paths for future research.FindingsA literature-generated conceptual framework is developed to explain and address the systemic barriers faced by opportunity-driven women as they engage in entrepreneurial contexts. This conceptual framework visualises the interplay between gender norms, contextual embeddedness and inequality mechanisms to explain systemic disparities. An extra dimension is integrated in the framework to account for the power of agency within women and with others, whereby agency, either individually or collectively, may disrupt and subvert the current interplay with inequality mechanisms.Originality/valueThis work advances understanding of the underrepresentation of women entrepreneurs. The paper offers a conceptual framework that provides policymakers with a useful tool to understand how to intervene and increase contextual embeddedness for all entrepreneurs. Additionally, this paper suggests moving beyond “fixing” women entrepreneurs and points towards disrupting systemic disparities to accomplish this contextual embeddedness for all entrepreneurs. By doing so, this research adds to academic knowledge on the construction and reconstruction of gender in the field of entrepreneurship.

Intersectional entrepreneurship: the burden of contextual embeddedness beyond the business

PurposeThis paper aims to shed new light on the contextual embeddedness of intersectional entrepreneurs, i.e. entrepreneurs situated at the intersection of multiple marginalized diversity attributes, beyond simply business strategies and decisions. Taking an emic perspective on everyday practices as intersectional entrepreneurs, it uncovers neglected dimensions of the contextuality of intersectional discriminations.Design/methodology/approachThe study presents qualitative data analysis results of in-depth narrative interviews with six intersectional entrepreneurs, all LGBTIQA* entrepreneurs with further diversity dimensions. It provides an emic view of intersectional entrepreneurs, in their everyday lives and the contexts, in which they develop their businesses.FindingsIntersectional entrepreneurs face different burdens induced by social structures along the entrepreneurial process. While access to the niche market is more difficult and they lack community support, their realization of intersectional discrimination is crucial for the development of business strategies. Simultaneously, intersectional entrepreneurs use their specific diversity attributes to develop their business, yet this proximity of their identity and the business contents has severe consequences for their mental state. Intersectional entrepreneurs adjust to the balance of opportunity and vulnerability.Originality/valueAs intersectional entrepreneurs are barred from conventional institutional support and also have limited access to resources from their respective social networks, there is an urgency to provide specific support for such entrepreneurs.

Beyond regional endogenous and firm-centric accounts: Contextualizing multiple and multiscalar industrial branching mechanisms for the emergence of biotechnology industries in Guangzhou, China

Industrial branching proposed by evolutionary economic geographers exhibits robustness in illustrating the spatial emergence of new industries in regions. However, extant studies are primarily confined to a single type of industrial branching mechanism, such as spin-off or firm diversification, and biasedly equate them as regional endogenous and firm-centric processes, regardless of wider contextual embeddedness. Therefore, this paper seeks to take into account the contribution of multiple and multiscalar industrial branching mechanisms embedded in industrial nature and territorial contexts to emerging industries in regions, with a particular case study of biotechnology industries in Guangzhou, China. The emergence of biotechnology industries in Guangzhou during 1978–2019 is characterized by an overall fluctuating trend and recent remarkable expansion in the 2010s. The emerging process is driven by the combination of spin-off, start-up, and firm diversification, sourcing from actors across multilevel geographical scales (e.g., urban, regional, national, global). Multiple and multiscalar industrial branching mechanisms are rendered by the spatiotemporally contingent articulations among micro-level firm motivations, meso-level industrial nature, and macro-level territorial contexts, which is encapsulated in Guangzhou's strategic position in China's economic reform and opening-up in a gradual manner and Guangzhou's latecomer position in biotechnology development and industrialization. With an emphasis on moving beyond regional endogenous and firm-centric accounts, this paper aims to articulate actor-specific motivations with industrial and territorial embeddedness to gain a multilayered and context-sensitive understanding of the emergence of new industries in regions.

Immigrant business in transnational contexts: a multifocal understanding of the breakout process

PurposeThis paper contributes to the development of an enhanced understanding of the breakout strategies of immigrant entrepreneurs within a transnational context. It develops a dynamic notion of breakout by placing it within a wider understanding of immigrant entrepreneurial strategy characterised by multifocal embeddedness within transnational space.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a qualitative research methodological approach. In-depth interviews were completed with 30 first- and second-generation UK-based Nigerian entrepreneurs and key informants, to provide data on business growth strategies of individual immigrant entrepreneurs in the context of opportunity structures across host, home and third countries.FindingsNigerian immigrant entrepreneurs adopted distinctive entrepreneurial strategies related to the complex and diverse transnational context within which they were embedded. Findings demonstrated how the realisation of diversification and differentiation strategies was particularly influenced by locational and spatial strategies, the specific contextual embeddedness of the entrepreneur and generational differences across entrepreneurs.Originality/valueConceptualising immigrant entrepreneurship from a standpoint of transnational, multifocal embeddedness produces a complex and multi-layered understanding of business breakout as a dynamic process. Drawing together the unifocal, bifocal and multifocal dimensions of embeddedness with findings on the breakout strategies being pursued by immigrant entrepreneurs, an original typology is presented which identifies different approaches to breakout across varied contexts. This has significant policy and practice implications for the content, targeting and access of business support and wider social issues, relating to the identities, social mobility and integration of immigrant entrepreneurs.

Achieving Sustainable Development Goals through Social Entrepreneurship:A Study of India & South Africa

Introduction: Social concerns without businesses and businesses without social consideration are anti-developmental. However, balancing both simultaneously is arduous and challenging. Nevertheless, social entrepreneurship has proven that it could be balanced simultaneously.
 
 Objective: The study aims to comprehend how the multipronged SDGs could be achieved through social entrepreneurial activities in India & South Africa. Albeit, both nations have distinct features in terms of geographically, demographically, religiously, and culturally.
 Methods: The study randomly selected the samples from both countries & used the case study approach of qualitative research.
 
 Results: The study shows that the selected cases from both nations focus mainly on waste management, social inclusion and women empowerment. Most of the case studies were working for waste management in both countries, where they aimed to reduce plastic pollution, i.e., both the nation's critical problems at the current time. However, due to contextual embeddedness, these social enterprises adopt different techniques to achieve these multipronged SDGs in both countries. Besides, they also generate employment opportunities for the people and help to reduce poverty in both countries. Few other case studies have impinged on women's empowerment and social inclusion, particularly disabled people.
 
 Conclusion: The study concludes by saying that additional work needs to be done to develop the concept further and that the government should offer incentives for adopting this concept since, with the aid of social entrepreneurs, the government may accelerate its progress towards the accomplishment of sustainable development goals.

The politics of living-with-difference: Local perception of diversity and coexistence around participatory place-making in a multiethnic neighbourhood

While much has been said about the structural and spatial dimensions of living-with-difference in the city’s diverse places, existing research has seldom addressed its situatedness within a wider institutional context of place-making that shapes the everyday conditions of our encounters and experiences with ‘others’. As a result, little attention has been paid to the political dynamics of the governance process that engender a context-specific definition and meaning of urban diversity at the local scale. In this light, this article delves into the contextual embeddedness of urban diversity in regenerating a multiethnic neighbourhood, around which residents build their new social relations and belonging. It uses Vienna’s urban renewal model as a research window, through which to explore the political dimension of state-led urban renewal, including institutional and stakeholder arrangements, and its social implications for both old and new residents in everyday spaces. Building on the empirical evidence obtained through field observation and interviewing, it demonstrates how a ‘bottom-linked’ renewal process and its resultant outcome shape a place-specific mode of living-with-difference in the daily life. It concludes highlighting the need for greater attention to the enabling role of the city’s institutional arrangements and policy designs in current research on urban diversity and coexistence.

The contextual embeddedness of female entrepreneurship: investigating the influence of macro and motherhood factors in Bahrain

PurposeThe paper aims to shed light on the factors that affect female entrepreneurship at the macro-environment level and motherhood in the Kingdom of Bahrain.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the 5M model and an institutional approach, this paper uses a qualitative semi-structured in-depth interview approach with 44 female entrepreneurs.FindingsThe results uncover several findings highlighting the important influence of the macro-environment on female entrepreneurs in Bahrain, grouped under formal (complex regulations, double employment constraints and financial obligations) and informal (societal perceptions) institutions, as well as the nuanced role of motherhood factors.Originality/valueThe study addresses the motherhood aspect of female entrepreneurs comprising household, family, child/elderly care and societally perceived female duties. Therefore, it constitutes the primary building block in a more gender-aware approach to female entrepreneurship. Addressing societal perceived gender roles leads to a comprehensive perspective on the study of female entrepreneurs.

Conditional on the Environment? The Contextual Embeddedness of Age, Health, and Socioeconomic Status as Predictors of Remote Work among Older Europeans through the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 era lockdown measures resulted in many workers performing their employment tasks remotely. While identifying individual-level predictors of COVID-19 era remote work, scholarship has neglected heterogeneity based on contextual characteristics. Using the first COVID-19 module (2020) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe ( N = 8,121) and multinomial logistic regression analyses, this study examined how country-level digitalization, stringency of government COVID-19 containment measures, and COVID-19 era excess mortality moderated how individual-level age, health, education, and income affected working partly or fully remotely among older Europeans (50-89 years) continuing to work through the pandemic. The central findings are that higher societal digitalization reduced the positive association between education and fully remote work, and greater country-level excess mortality accentuated how more education and poorer health increased the probability of fully remote work. These findings are interpreted through the fundamental cause theory of health and the health belief model. They further lead to recommendations that during future epidemics, policies and programs should address the remote working capabilities of older persons with fewer years of education, with fewer skills with modern digital technologies, and in worse health, especially within nations that are less digitally developed and harder hit by the epidemic in question.

A two-decade history of women’s entrepreneurship research trajectories in developing economies context: perspectives from India

PurposeThis paper seeks to add a historical perspective to the contemporary debate concerning women’s entrepreneurship in India. This study aims to explore the quantitative and qualitative research map of the research field of women’s entrepreneurship. Through this exploration, the authors aim to portray the historical and contemporary factors related to women’s entrepreneurship development in India, the problems and the opportunities. Future research opportunities are also identified based on the keyword analysis.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a systematic literature review to analyze the historical and theoretical perspectives of women’s entrepreneurship in India. The bibliometric analysis portrays the publication landscape, including the most popular journals, authors and countries, citation analysis and keyword analysis. The content analysis reveals the thematic clusters of the research field.FindingsThe content analysis of the management literature on women’s entrepreneurship reveals four primary clusters from the research: contextual embeddedness in women’s entrepreneurship, reasons for starting a business, microfinance interventions and empowerment of women entrepreneurs and marginalization dynamics for women entrepreneurs in India’s informal sector. The study also presents implications for policymakers and a women entrepreneurs’ development framework.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to comprehensively analyze the management literature on women’s entrepreneurship in India from a historical perspective. The study combines bibliometric mapping and content analysis for a holistic presentation of the research field of women’s entrepreneurship in India and future research opportunities.

Attention to the needs of women and girls in WASH: An analysis of WASH policies in selected sub-Saharan African countries

ABSTRACT There has been a push for understanding gendered violence in WASH in recent times. Attention is therefore shifting to how these issues are conceptualised, considering their embeddedness in context. One step primarily is to understand how existing policies in WASH acknowledge the needs of women and girls in WASH. In doing this, we conducted a summative content analysis of selected policy documents on WASH: five at the international level and five each from Ghana, Uganda and Kenya. Findings suggest that existing policies inadequately acknowledge WASH related gender-based violence and pay little attention to the complex ways gender and WASH relations are intimately connected. Generally, a holistic policy approach for addressing gender-based violence in WASH is needed. The paper recommends a system policy approach to address the unique needs of women and girls in WASH in sub-Saharan Africa.

African middle classness, politics and protest: on the context of this issue

ABSTRACT Middle classes in the Global South have become topical. They were considered mainly by economists in development-oriented institutions and praised as a factor contributing to economic development and democratic forces. We recapitulate some of the trends and remind the reader of earlier debates. We take stock of the variety of contributions and point to the efforts to have a more nuanced look at the composition and orientations of ‘middle classes’ and their political engagements. We maintain that the initial economistic reduction, measuring monetary income as the main criteria for middle classness, is insufficient and offers no reliable set of indicators as to the social and political as well as cultural positioning of members of such income groups. An appropriate analysis of the nature and role of African middle classes must consider four aspects: the specific class formations of African societies; the link between socioeconomic stratification and sociopolitical orientations; the limited knowledge and theorisation of African societies; and the need to apply a multidimensional and new research including diverse sociocultural elements and their contextual embeddedness. We argue that an intersectional lens can break up the classical competition of the one-dimensional paradigms and suggest decolonising research on protest and middle classes by integrating a perspective and theorisation from Africa. More attention should be paid to analytical concepts such as intersectionality and social milieu for the understanding of African societies and their potential for transformation through protest. This requires overcoming stereotypical and truncated assumptions about the middle classes.

Extractivist epistemologies

ABSTRACT This paper develops an account and critique of extractivist epistemologies, which are generated by extractivist projects. I argue that certain metaphysical and epistemological ideas and practices emerge from extractivist projects, and these ideas and practices have influenced the development of Western epistemologies. After presenting a critique, I develop four correct epistemic norms to counteract the effect of extracivist epistemologies: these all center on the question of relationships among knowers and the contextual embeddedness of knowledges.

Intersecting where? The multi-scalar contextual embeddedness of intersectional entrepreneurs

ABSTRACT We explore the experiences of LGBT* ethnic minority entrepreneurs, their changing locations and their entrepreneurial activities. Using a unique mixed-method approach which collected empirical data from Germany and the Netherlands, the paper combines an ethnographic fieldwork of intersectional entrepreneurs, community activists and policy-makers with an original survey with LGBT* customers. Our findings contribute to understanding of intersectionality by revealing the role played by the contextualized embeddedness of intersectional entrepreneurs at the different geographic scales of supranational, national, regional and inter and intra-urban. While such embeddedness frames the challenges they face, it also provides opportunities for intersectional entrepreneurs. Using a multi-scalar perspective, this paper delivers a spatially contextual perspective of entrepreneurial diversity and provides a framework to analyse the complex issues and contexts with which intersectional entrepreneurs are both confronted and embedded within. This paper contributes to refining the spatial context of entrepreneurship which has gained attention in recent studies of entrepreneurship and regional development. The paper responds to a call for gender entrepreneurship scholars to contribute to understanding of intersectional entrepreneurship. Finally, this study goes beyond the binary view of female migrant entrepreneurship by adopting a more gender diverse lens which considers the experiences of LGBT* entrepreneurs from ethnic minorities.

Institutions and Firms’ Performance: A Bibliometric Analysis and Future Research Avenues

International business scholars have recognized the importance of the contextual embeddedness of firms. However, how they matter remains a contested question. Although recent efforts have been made to review the field, it remains unclear how institutions affect firms’ performance. We aim at answering the following research question: How is the intellectual and the conceptual structure of the institutions and firms’ performance field defined? We searched in the WoS and Scopus databases with pre-determined keywords, and we obtained a sample of 1063 articles that we analyzed by conducting the citation and co-citation analyses, keyword co-occurrence analysis, and thematic map analysis. Our bibliometric results portrayed how the intellectual and conceptual structure of the field has evolved. We contribute to the international business literature by providing a one-stop overview of the field, thus identifying current accomplishments and future research avenues on the relationship between institutions and firms’ performance. By analyzing the articles included on the Emerging and Niche clusters, we discuss future research avenues on the topics of sustainability, entrepreneurship, political ties, and institutional quality.

Exploring the emancipatory role of entrepreneurship in a developing context

PurposeThe aim of the study is to examine the reciprocal relation between context and emancipatory acts. Context is important in shaping the entrepreneurial action, particularly in a developing region, as it expounds its emancipatory role. At the same time emancipatory acts can affect context as well.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs an inductive research design, applying an open-ended exploratory research and conversation analysis, to elicit the stories of 25 entrepreneurs who are challenging their status quo.FindingsActs of emancipation were observed through a dynamic process centred around entrepreneurs' abilities to respond to policy debates. These debates introduced an individual level action towards social and institutional change. The findings present a model of entrepreneurial acts as an enabler in a socially constrained and challenging context.Originality/valueThrough contextual embeddedness, this study captured the entrepreneur's abilities to re-perform and negotiation with their context towards actions of emancipation. The study aims to capture individuals' narratives to enhance our understanding of the contextual and embedded factors that shape the entrepreneurial process towards emancipation. The study presents a model that theorises these narratives and actions.

Distributed photovoltaic generation in Argentina: An analysis based on the technical innovation system framework

In Argentina, renewable energies are promoted as a way of decarbonising the electricity mix and providing reliable energy services. The national goal is to generate 20% of electricity from renewable sources by 2025. However, despite significant natural potential, solar photovoltaic still represents only a small share of Argentina's total electricity generation. Although this picture may look bleak, a wide range of market segments relating to decentralised photovoltaic generation in Argentina have developed. The general objective of this study is to examine the dynamics that currently enable or constrain the diffusion of distributed photovoltaic systems in Argentina. By applying the Technical Innovation System (TIS) approach, the aim is to understand which functions of the system are strong/weak and how these are influenced by endogenous/exogenous system strengths and weaknesses. To that end, a mixed method research strategy is applied. The exploratory sequential research design allows first to explore system strengths and weaknesses based on qualitative approaches, and then to further analyse the contextual embeddedness and the level of importance of the identified variables using quantitative survey instruments. Thereby, this study provides an important analytical method that contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the interdependencies of the TIS. The empirical results indicate that system weaknesses are shaped to a large extent by the overall contextual dynamics - such as political instability, energy subsidies and high inflation rates. System strengths relate to both the TIS itself (particularly knowledge development through pilot projects and market formation through provincial and national support programmes), to contextual relationships (linked to the availability of educational institutions that enable the rapid diffusion of knowledge) and to the importance of rural areas as protected spaces for the application of photovoltaic systems. Consequently, the study highlights the challenges to overcome for the broader diffusion of distributed photovoltaic generation.

In Good Company? Personal Relationships, Network Embeddedness, and Social Inclusion

How do individuals’ networks of personal relationships affect their social in‐ and exclusion? Researchers have shown that micro‐level, informal relationships can be highly consequential for social inclusion, but in complex, contradictory ways: Personal networks reflect the degree of relational exclusion and protect against (other forms of) exclusion, but they also erode in conditions of exclusion and reproduce exclusion. While network researchers have widely studied some of these mechanisms, they have yet to embrace others. Therefore, this thematic issue reconsiders the complex relationship between personal networks and social inclusion. It offers a unique vantage point by bringing together researchers who work with different marginalised social groups, typically studied separately: refugees, transnational migrants, indigenous people, older people, people experiencing poverty, LGBT people, and women who have experienced domestic violence. This combination allows us to detect commonalities and differences in network functioning across historically excluded groups. This editorial lays the theoretical groundwork for the thematic issue and discusses the key contributions of the seventeen articles that compose the issue. We call for more attention to relationship expectations, the reciprocity of support flows, and contextual embeddedness, and question universally adopted theoretical binaries such as that of bonding and bridging social capital.

When the Past Is Not Another Country: The Battlefields of History in Russia

ABSTRACT In this introduction to our special issue on the politics of memory in the post-Soviet space, we present a four-part analytical framework through which to evaluate recent developments in the region. Specifically, we focus on: 1) the circulation of memories across space and time; 2) the factors that condition the recall of the past; 3) the actors involved in these processes; and 4) the logics that guide how the past is represented and interpreted. This framework provides a means through which to conceptually order and discuss the individual contributions to this issue, as well as to evaluate the wider relevance of Russia’s 2020 Victory Day commemoration, which marked the 75th anniversary of World War II’s end. A central claim advanced in this article is that researchers need to distinguish not just between the nationalized remembering we increasingly see being manifest across the former communist states of East-Central Europe and the more universalistic appeals of the cosmopolitan memory regime that predominates in Western Europe, but also contemporary Russia’s attempts to promulgate an “empire memory” that represents a competing set of generalizable norms for how the past should be depicted. The latter is significant because it directly challenges the specificity and contextual embeddedness of national recall as well as key mnemonic precepts of the post-national–meaning largely spatially and temporally unbounded–attention that has been accorded to victimhood and suffering in recent decades.