Feminisms and entrepreneurship: a systematic literature review investigating a troubled connection

Abstract

The paper aims to systematically review the literature that empirically investigates the relationship between feminisms and entrepreneurship. Feminisms, meant as movements, cultures, collective identities embedded with values and beliefs, could indeed contribute to challenge patriarchal gender norms that dominate the entrepreneurial world, so allowing new forms and narratives of business to emerge. To achieve the paper goal, a systematic literature review protocol is developed and the most prominent scientific research databases are queried. After a bibliometric framing of the retrieved papers, content analysis is adopted to identify the theoretical and methodological approaches, relevant topics and research gaps. Despite a considerable inhomogeneity in definitions, topics, and theoretical framings, the study shows that most papers agree on recognizing the crucial role of feminisms in: (i) women's entrepreneurial empowerment, especially in traditionally male-dominated cultural and geographical contexts and (ii) challenging the neoliberal paradigm. The study also inductively derives a definition of feminist entrepreneur, proposing an ontology that illustrates its relationship to the concepts of entrepreneurship, feminism and entrepreneurial feminist. From a managerial perspective, the study highlights similarities and differences among heterogeneous entrepreneurial experiences, thus unveiling feminist entrepreneurship features potentially useful for policy makers, educators, and practitioners. On the societal level, the research contributes to spreading knowledge about a phenomenon arguably disruptive in enhancing the inclusiveness of traditional entrepreneurial ecosystems.