The entrepreneurial mindset and poverty

ABSTRACT

We investigate the role of the entrepreneurial mindset in facilitating entrepreneurship by those in poverty. The poverty context contains attributes that place individuals at a disadvantage when launching a venture, conceptualized as the liability of poorness. Poverty also can engender characteristics consistent with entrepreneurial success, or poverty assets. The paper explores how the mindset can help overcome the liability of poorness, while poverty assets serve as a bridge to the mindset. A model is proposed with the mindset as a moderator between aspects of poverty and entrepreneurial outcomes. It is argued that the mindset must be adapted to reflect poverty contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Entrepreneurial mindset
• liability of poorness
• poverty assets
• venture types
• venture performance