Unexpected entrepreneurs: the identity work of entrepreneurs with disabilities

ABSTRACT

Drawing on in-depth interviews, this study investigates how entrepreneurs with disabilities (EWDs) position themselves, in their identity work, vis-à-vis dominant, normative representations of the entrepreneur that tend to exclude them. Addressing the current neglect in how EWDs deal with such discursive barriers, we document four identity positions which they deploy, in various combinations, to construct an identity as an entrepreneur. Our findings show that outward positions, by which EWDs compare their own self with (non)-entrepreneurial (able-bodied) others and emphasize similarity and uniqueness, reproduce normative representations of the entrepreneur. Inward positions, by which EWDs engage in inner conversations contrasting their current self with older, aspirational or impossible selves, on the contrary lead to the destabilization of normative representations. This study speaks back to wider debates in entrepreneurship studies, including the plea to consider ‘ordinary’ entrepreneurs, the difference between ‘being’ an entrepreneur and ‘doing’ entrepreneurship, and the value in difference.

KEYWORDS:

• Minority entrepreneurship
• disability
• identity work
• identity positioning
• discourse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In this paper we use the term ‘impairment’ to refer to a person’s bodily variation or biological difference. We use the term ‘people with disabilities’ to denote a group of people that have historically been disadvantaged by a society that is maladapted to all kinds of human variation, thereby disabling people with impairments and excluding them from equal participation in various domains of life.