Gendering Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Levelling the Field
Entrepreneurship ecosystems constitute the community and culture in which entrepreneurs interact within a given place (Cavallo et al., 2019), and involve several interconnected elements such as a conducive culture, the availability of financing, the acquisition and development of human capital, new markets for products and services, and a range of institutional and infrastructural support (Stam, 2015). These factors are mutually reinforcing and facilitate innovation and the growth of entrepreneurship. They determine the “who”, “where” and “when” of entrepreneurship (Welter, 2011).
Entrepreneurial ecosystems are not neutral spaces (McAdam et al., 2019). While the success of the venture ideally should be based on the effort, energy, and creativity of the entrepreneur, elements such as race, gender or class also matter, recent research shows. Yet gender perspectives are at large absent from discussions of entrepreneurship ecosystems in both practice and theory. And importantly, the often implicit bias through omission may in fact be a key mechanism in upholding and generating gendered biases that increases inequalities (O’Dwyer 2022: 60).
By providing a gender lens on entrepreneurship ecosystems, the volume will contribute to insights on how to remedy gendered challenges that may pose a problem not only for a person but for the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a whole. In so doing, we hope that this will inspire and create a better understanding of how and why entrepreneurial ecosystems can become more inclusive.
We invite potential contributors to submit a tentative title, an abstract (max. 500 words) and keywords (max. 6) for their intended chapter. The abstract should include the objectives of the chapter, the methods used, and the potential findings and implications of your work for research and practice. Abstracts should be submitted by email with the heading ‘Gendering Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Submission’ to no later than 15th of May 2023.
Please download the full call here. Please feel free to contact any of the editors below if you need any further information or want to discuss a potential contribution to this book: