Toward A More Inclusive Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: An Exploration of the Lived Experience of Disadvantaged Women Entrepreneurs and the Supportive or Barrier-Breaking Role of the French Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

This research, consisting of three studies, intends to provide more theoretical and managerial insights to foster a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem for disadvantaged women entrepreneurs. Thus, this research engages the debate on gender and intersectionality in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, to understand better the lived experiences and challenges of disadvantaged women entrepreneurs. In this sense, the first study examines the interactions between disadvantaged women entrepreneurs and ecosystem organisational actors within the entrepreneurial ecosystem and their impact on disadvantaged women entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial journey and activities. Thus, the institutional logic’s perspective sheds light on the social structures and hierarchies carried at the micro, meso, and macro levels, contributing to impede disadvantaged women entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial activities by perpetuating structural barriers within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The second study draws upon the findings from the first study and aims to explore disadvantaged women entrepreneurs’ response strategies to the institutional tensions inherent to their interactions within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. In this sense, through Pache and Santos’ (2013) typology, it highlights disadvantaged women entrepreneurs’ agency to cope with the tensions and the role enacted to adapt and contribute to institutional changes in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Finally, the third study further explores disadvantaged women entrepreneurs’ lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. In this sense, it adopts an intersectional perspective and provides further development to Newman et al (2022)’ s entrepreneurial-focused conceptual model of SMEs’ response to unexpected crises, to understand better the impact of the pandemic on themselves, their business, and their coping strategies. Thus, the study reveals the key role of factors such as self-efficacy, resilience, and prior entrepreneurial experience, that influence their coping strategies. Furthermore, it points out the critical role of government support, informal networks, and collective local solidarity as elements of the entrepreneurial ecosystem to support disadvantaged women entrepreneurs.