Exploring intersectionality issues in entrepreneurial finance: Policy responses and future research directions

• Date: 01 January 2019
• Published date: 01 January 2019
• Author: Javed Hussain,Jonathan M. Scott
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.2244

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Exploring intersectionality issues in entrepreneurial finance:

Policy responses and future research directions

Jonathan M. Scott

1

| Javed Hussain

2

1

Newcastle Business School, Northumbria

University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST,

United Kingdom

2

Birmingham City Business School,

Birmingham City University, Birmingham,

United Kingdom

Correspondence

Jonathan M. Scott, Newcastle Business

School, Northumbria University, City Campus

East, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 8ST, United

Kingdom.

Email: jonathan.scott@northumbria.ac.uk

Abstract

Entrepreneurial finance scholars (and policy makers) need to adopt an intersectional approach

to their analysis (and policymaking) and pay more attention to the interplay between the owner-

manager characteristics of ethnicity/race, gender, and social class. As most literature on entre-

preneurial finance treats ethnicity/race, gender, and class separately, an intersectional approach

to analysis is complex, whether social (race, gender, and social class) or situational characteristics

(entrepreneur vs. migrant/social or health-care worker). Women, ethnic minorities, and working-

class people are disadvantaged when seeking finance. We integrate the literature and propose

intersectionality as a framework for policy makers, because the interplay between these charac-

teristics can be addressed to develop innovative methods of finance.

1|INTRODUCTION

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008, the ensuing Governmental

austerity measures, and the emergent changing global trade relation-

ships and migration regimes following “populist”plebiscites in the

United Kingdom and the United States have engendered a new imper-

ative for societies to make better use of the talent among their popu-

lations to enhance their competitive edge. Within this context, ethnic

women entrepreneurs can be considered to be an underutilized

resource. In an ever-interconnected world economic system, entre-

preneurship is vital for the well-being of an economy, and ethnic

entrepreneurs play an important role. Thirteen percent of U.K. new

ventures are started by ethnic entrepreneurs and the take-up of eth-

nic women's entrepreneurship (25.9%) is lower than British women

(29.1%) (Johnson & Kimmelman, 2014), with some notable exceptions

including Thais, Filipinas, and Vietnamese (Villares-Varela, Ram, &

Jones, 2017). Ethnic women are underrepresented because they per-

form a supporting role rather than operate independently (Carter,

Mwaura, Ram, Trehan, & Jones, 2017). The promotion and support of

ethnic women entrepreneurs have the potential to enhance social and

economic cohesion (Carter, Mwaura, Ram, Trehan, & Jones, 2017).

However, despite proactive policies to promote ethnic women entre-

preneurs, their participation rates have remained relatively low

(Muravyev, Talavera, & Schäfer, 2009). One such explanation for this

trend is that “superdiversity”among ethnic groups (Carter et al., 2017;

Vertovec, 2007) masks heterogeneity, rigidities, and limits the applica-

tion of policy analysis and the ensuing prescriptions. Therefore, ethnic

women entrepreneurs inevitably have divergent expectations and

experiences based on their culture, regional variations, religious

beliefs, and skill sets. This suggests the need for a more holistic study

of the literature on intersectionality to gain a deeper and insightful

knowledge of ethnic women's experiences in accessing entrepre-

neurial finance.

The entrepreneurial finance literature is “segmented”(Cumming &

Johan, 2017), while studies on access to finance for ethnic women

have been subsumed under the general heading “ethnicity.”Yet inter-

sectionality, an important aspect, overlooks “grouping enclaves”

within ethnic communities giving rise to complex and interlinked chal-

lenges. As a result, it simplifies deep-rooted rigidities and experiences

among the heterogeneous section of the ethnic population. This

anomaly calls for a better and deeper understanding of the socioeco-

nomic context of ethnic minorities in general and entrepreneurial

attributes in particular, an approach suggested by Marlow (2014). The

existing specialist body of literature on intersectionality is both com-

plex and fragmented. The term intersectionality incorporates multiple,

and a multitude of, themes and attributes. Therefore, it is not surpris-

ing that such a “hard to reach”segment of research to date has not

been fully examined due to the complexity of the interconnected

nature of gender, race, and ethnicity. However, given the interconnec-

tivity of global markets and the emergence of hyper-competition,

economies need to optimize their operational capabilities by empow-

ering all segments of productive capital. Gender has been shown to be

JEL Classification Code: G2, L26, J15, J16.

DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2244

Strategic Change. 2019;28:37–45. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jsc © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 37