Navigating gendered spaces: a feminist phenomenological exploration of women entrepreneurs lived experiences within government support agencies

Abstract

Purpose

This article explores women entrepreneurs' lived experiences in their interactions with government enterprise support agencies. It investigates the relationship between gendering and Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), as a normative orientation adopted at the institutional level and justified by an economic rationale. It also explores how women entrepreneurs articulate their experiences through embodied metaphors and image schemas, shedding light on how they navigate the institutional entrepreneurial space.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is framed within the concept of Phenomenological Orientation as conceptualised in feminist phenomenology. It applies Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, a qualitative methodology focused on interpreting accounts of first-person lived experiences of a phenomenon. It combines IPA with Conceptual Metaphor Theory to understand women's articulation of their embodied relationship within the entrepreneurial space.

Findings

Findings reveal that the entrepreneurial orientation functions as a gendering process within entrepreneurial institutions, reinforcing masculine hegemonic ideals and marginalising women entrepreneurs. Women's phenomenological orientations often diverge from the normative entrepreneurial orientation, highlighting the need for a more inclusive framework in institutional entrepreneurial spaces.

Research limitations/implications

This article contributes to women's entrepreneurship literature by underlining the temporal dimension of entrepreneurship and the tension that underpins their interactions with government support bodies. It calls for inclusive policies and procedures to match the heterogeneity of orientations. While highlighting its limitations, it also suggests future research directions to deepen the understanding of entrepreneurship and inform more suitable support structures for all entrepreneurs.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by shedding light on the nuanced interplay between gendering, entrepreneurial orientation, and women entrepreneurs' lived experiences. It extends previous research by framing “orientation” within a temporality framework, offering a novel perspective on the gendering of entrepreneurial spaces.

Citation

Oliveira, E., Basini, S. and Cooney, T.M. (2024), "Navigating gendered spaces: a feminist phenomenological exploration of women entrepreneurs lived experiences within government support agencies", International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 564-601. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJGE-10-2023-0258

Introduction

Research on women's entrepreneurship has shifted its initial focus from contextualising gender towards the gendering of contexts (Welter, 2020). This research builds upon the latter, investigating the relationship between gendering and Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) as a normative orientation pursued by neoliberal governments (Marlow, 2020; Marlow et al., 2019). Drawing on feminist phenomenology, the current article explores women's lived experiences as they navigate the institutional environment as gendered spaces. Mainly, it concerns women's interactions with Government enterprise support agencies in Ireland, represented by the Local Enterprise Office (LEO). Additionally, it frames “orientation” within the concept of temporality as socially constructed (Lippmann and Aldrich, 2016), as a dimension of the entrepreneurial context often overlooked (Wales et al., 2021; Wood et al., 2021). Therefore, it poses the following research question: How do women entrepreneurs experience the EO as a gendering process within government support agencies?

Gendering refers to institutional and organisational processes that differentiate individuals according to gender by normalising and privileging one to the detriment of others (Calás et al., 2009; Young, 2002). Within this context, this study draws upon feminist phenomenology, which explores how individuals experience the world (Fielding, 2017a). Specifically, critical feminist phenomenology merges the theoretical project of poststructuralism with a phenomenological focus on lived experiences (Oksala, 2016). As such, experiences are embedded in social-historical contexts and lived through bodies (de Beauvoir, 2011; Merleau-Ponty, 1945/1962). Accordingly, Phenomenological Orientation (PO) is conceptualised as one's embodied zero-point of orientation (Ahmed, 2006), influenced by time and space as a potentiality of the here and now to unfold into the future (Fielding, 2017b). This perspective underscores the importance of understanding how women entrepreneurs navigate gendered spaces articulated through metaphorical embodied language (Grady, 1997; Lakoff and Johnson, 2003). By examining their interactions with entrepreneurial institutions, this article sheds light on the complexities of their lived experiences and orientations.

EO is a theoretical construct with roots in strategic management which seeks to measure entrepreneurial behaviour (e.g. innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness; Wales et al., 2021). Existing research primarily focuses on EO at the firm level (Randerson, 2016), later extending to the individual level (Clark et al., 2023). However, while a well-established concept, its application within regulatory institutions, such as government support agencies, is still underexplored, particularly concerning gender. This study aims to bridge this gap by examining how EO functions within these support structures and how it might contribute to the gendering of entrepreneurial spaces for women.

This study addresses another significant research gap concerning how agency is exercised within gendered contexts (Welter, 2020). As defined herein, agency is the drive to act even when an individual has no control over a situation (Fielding, 2017a) in which agency is ambiguous and situated (de Beauvoir, 2011). Hence, it is neither innate to individuals nor structurally determined. In this sense, feminist phenomenology seeks to bridge the divide between agency and structure, positing them as co-constituted (Young, 2002).

This research attempts to answer the questions posed by Ahmed (2006): “What difference does it make ‘what’ … [women entrepreneurs] are orientated toward? … If orientation is a matter of how [they] reside in space, then [entrepreneurial] orientation might also be a matter of … how [they] inhabit [entrepreneurial] spaces” (p. 1). Based on current findings, the authors argue that EO functions as a gendering process (Calás et al., 2009; Gherardi and Poggio, 2018; Young, 2002) within entrepreneurial institutions. Women entrepreneurs' orientation towards specific goals and values significantly impacts how they navigate entrepreneurial spaces, as evident in the metaphors they use to articulate their experiences. Understanding what they are oriented toward is crucial because it influences their interactions with government support agencies and whether the resources available suit their needs. Therefore, addressing gendered disparities within entrepreneurship and fostering a more inclusive and supportive entrepreneurial space is essential.

Gendering processes within the institutional entrepreneurial context

Within this article, gendering is defined as “ongoing [macrosocial] processes of sexual differentiation … [through] microsocial practices” (Calás et al., 2009, p. 559). These processes delineate how society is organised through a gender-hierarchical structure (Gherardi and Poggio, 2018). When applied to the institutional entrepreneurial context, research has acknowledged that rules and regulations generally restrict entrepreneurial activities for women (Balachandra et al., 2019) and individuals who do not conform to normalised hegemonic masculinity (Dean et al., 2019; Marlow, 2020). By highlighting unacknowledged contextual factors (Brush et al., 2009) and normative entrepreneurial discourses (Dean et al., 2019), researchers have demonstrated how entrepreneurship policy (Ahl and Nelson, 2015; Henry et al., 2017), and socio-institutional discourses (Bourne and Calás, 2013; Kubberød et al., 2021; Swail and Marlow, 2018) may be biased against women, even if unintentionally (Brush et al., 2009).

Broader government policies and societal beliefs may also have a detrimental effect on women's entrepreneurship. As an illustration, the idea that women's professional careers cannot come at the expense of their caring responsibilities is still firmly rooted in the normative division of gender roles. Shame is attached to being unable to run a household or adequately care for loved ones (Chasserio et al., 2014). Separating social life into private and public spheres can negatively affect women's entrepreneurship (Bourne and Calás, 2013). The double burden means women do not have as much time as their male counterparts to dedicate to their businesses. Conversely, despite research efforts to acknowledge entrepreneurship embeddedness in the family (Aldrich and Cliff, 2003), the household dimension remains widely overlooked by policymakers (Brush et al., 2009). Moreover, regulations are not designed to challenge rooted beliefs and values, such as gender stereotypes (Balachandra et al., 2019). Quite the opposite, neoliberal ideologies reinforce and reproduce current systems that serve those in power (Marlow, 2020; Marlow et al., 2019).

There is an assumption that the ideal entrepreneur is motivated by profit and high growth aspirations and displays masculine traits, such as assertiveness and high-risk propensity (Ogbor, 2003). Entrepreneurship is described in terms of its economic function: to generate high employment and profitability (Dean et al., 2019). Consequently, women are portrayed as “deficient entrepreneurs” (Marlow et al., 2019, p. 43). The tendency to use men as the benchmark resulted in the underappreciation of women's experiences (Brush et al., 2009). Consequently, entrepreneurial institutions generally encourage women's entrepreneurship but do not go as far as empowering them as entrepreneurial agents (Harrison et al., 2020). Regardless, women may defy normative expectations by engaging in entrepreneurship on their terms (Humbert and Brindley, 2015; Kubberød et al., 2021), which may come with negative consequences (e.g. difficulties in accessing resources; Nelson et al., 2009; e.g. issues of legitimacy; Patterson and Mavin, 2009). They may also learn not to belong as a unique coping strategy to navigate a male-dominated landscape (Kubberød et al., 2021).

Overall, while there is an acknowledgement that Government policies are not producing the desired outcomes, women are blamed for not being committed enough or for lacking an EO (Marlow and McAdam, 2013), where orientation (e.g. opportunity-led, high-risk propensity) is mainly defined from the male perspective (Brush et al., 2009). That is the case even though, under further scrutiny, the underperformance hypothesis (Marlow and McAdam, 2013) has been repeatedly debunked. From this perspective, EO is introduced and discussed in the next section.

Entrepreneurial Orientation

From its origins, three dimensions of EO were established that best captured its associated behaviours: innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness. Two more dimensions were later added: competitive aggressiveness and autonomy (Lumpkin and Dess, 1996). Research (Lumpkin and Dess, 1996; Wales et al., 2021) suggests a strong positive correlation between EO and firm performance (e.g. profitability, growth, and market share).

As applied to women's entrepreneurship, earlier studies showed that they generally underperformed men in several factors, such as profit, revenue, sales, employment, expansion, and others (Marlow and McAdam, 2013). However, challenging assumptions of women's underperformance, Henry et al. (2016) highlighted that when controlling for contextual variations, gender itself could not explain the differences found. Likewise, Jennings and McDougald (2007) proposed that different dynamics and coping strategies regarding the work-family interface would account for female firms' underperformance. Moreover, Marlow and McAdam (2013) argued that independent of the gender of the owner, and specifically regarding small firms: (1) the majority exhibit marginal growth and performance; (2) most rapid-growth small companies will revert to a “normal” pattern; and (3) high rates of churn are the norm. Therefore, the description of women's business performance is, in fact, a portrait of the average small firm.

The Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation (IEO) was proposed as a derivative construct with a view that a firm's EO is directly associated with the orientation of its founder(s) (or owners, managers, etc.) (Clark et al., 2023). In this case, the three original dimensions are the most commonly measured (Goktan and Gupta, 2013), assuming that IEO strongly correlates to firm performance. Accordingly, research findings are inconclusive, with some pointing out that females have higher IEO scores (e.g. Kundu and Rani, 2004), others go in the opposite direction (e.g. Goktan and Gupta, 2013), while a third group presented no significant differences or showed disparity in some measures but not in others (e.g. Júnior and Gimenez, 2012). These variations can be justified by divergences in sampling (e.g. countries) and items measured.

The Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation (IEO) was proposed as a derivative construct with a view that a firm's EO is directly associated with the orientation of its founder(s) (or owners, managers, etc.) (Clark et al., 2023). In this case, the three original dimensions are the most commonly measured (Goktan and Gupta, 2013), assuming that IEO strongly correlates to firm performance. Accordingly, research findings are inconclusive, with some pointing out that females have higher IEO scores (e.g. Kundu and Rani, 2004), others go in the opposite direction (e.g. Goktan and Gupta, 2013), while a third group presented no significant differences or showed disparity in some measures but not in others (e.g. Júnior and Gimenez, 2012). These variations can be justified by divergences in sampling (e.g. countries) and items measured.

EO studies often apply a quantitative paradigm (Randerson, 2016), overlooking the contextual factors that lead to different orientations (Henry et al., 2016; Jennings and Brush, 2013). Women are generally motivated by a desire to have more autonomy and flexibility (Gherardi, 2015; McGowan et al., 2012; Patterson and Mavin, 2009), with the emergence of their enterprises justified by three primary contextual motivators: career choice and development (Patterson and Mavin, 2009), work-family balance (McGowan et al., 2012), and social/community-motivated (Bakas, 2017; Solesvik et al., 2019). Similarly, growth and success are intrinsically related to women's motivations (Morris et al., 2006), in which profit is only one among other elements. Therefore, success is articulated beyond quantitative measurements, including, for instance, caring for the family (Bakas, 2017) or helping their local communities (Solesvik et al., 2019). Finally, women's risk propensity is strongly determined by their motivation and situation within the family (Humbert and Brindley, 2015). Any analysis of EO should understand that the relationship between women's business performance and temporality is complex. Women's innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, competitiveness, and autonomy are context-dependent, and gender itself is a contextual factor.

To advance research on gendering and EO, this article suggests a novel approach to the EO theoretical construct as a qualitative category applied to the institutional entrepreneurial context to examine orientation from a feminist phenomenological perspective.

Orientation from the perspective of feminist phenomenology

Orientation is a central concept within phenomenology and can be understood as the body's zero-point of orientation, particularly regarding how individuals inhabit spaces and how spaces are experienced differently depending on a body's position and direction (Ahmed, 2006). The PO emphasises how lived experiences are shaped by, and shape, temporal experiences (including time and space). These experiences are located within specific historical, social, and cultural contexts. By contrast, EO's quantitative approach seeks to objectively measure entrepreneurial behaviour at the firm level, generally treating time as a static variable (see a comparison in Table 1).

According to Ahmed (2006), if orientation is where one begins, it represents things that are “more and less familiar” (p. 28) to people. Taking “orientation” as a metaphor for personal values, the values anchoring individuals in space/time are also the “objects” they are oriented towards. Continuing this line of thought, being directed towards something (e.g. a goal) means that the body is aligned and extends towards the object of desire. Alignment herein also suggests being “in line” with others facing the same direction. Additionally, being oriented is about familiarity with spaces (Ahmed, 2006). Contrastingly, a lack of habituality, such as when one deviates from a familiar path, can cause disorientation. Nevertheless, getting habituated with new objects or spaces denotes a familiarisation process in which bodies become reoriented. A point of orientation also determines what is here, there, or over there. An individual generally better understands close objects placed within a shared space. At the same time, other things are more difficult to apprehend because of one's perception of distance (or familiarity). Accordingly, for Ahmed (2006), “perception is a way of facing something” (p. 27). Therefore, perception is a stance one takes regarding the lifeworld as it appears to one's consciousness.

Gendering, as a critical concept within feminist phenomenology, explores how individuals are collectively positioned within social structures that may grant more opportunities to some at the expense of others (Young, 2002), which is aligned with the definition presented previously. A feminist phenomenological analysis of gendering aims to understand how women make sense of their lived experiences within gendered contexts.

By juxtaposing the concepts of gendering (Calás et al., 2009; Young, 2002) and PO, this article argues that bodies become more or less entrepreneurial by aligning with a normative EO. In this regard, institutional economic reasoning operates as a corrective device through targeted support programmes (Ahl and Nelson, 2015; Henry et al., 2017), in which women's values and motivations may be seen as deviant. Accordingly, the present research focuses on women's lived experiences of the regulatory institutional environment in Ireland, represented by a Government enterprise support body, as presented next.

Methodology

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: ontological and epistemological paradigm

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is especially interested in exploring experiences that lead to deep reflection (Smith et al., 2022), such as entrepreneurship (Cope, 2011). It combines phenomenology (i.e. the philosophy of experience), hermeneutics (i.e. the philosophy of interpretation), and idiography (i.e. case-by-case analysis) (Smith et al., 2022), setting it apart from other qualitative methods. By comparing individual cases, IPA can reveal what is particular to a specific group within a specific context and what is unique to each individual in their idiosyncratic relationship with a phenomenon. Therefore, while generalisations in the nomothetic sense do not apply to IPA, contextualised general claims can be made through theoretical transferability (Cope, 2011). Therefore, while the present findings reflect the parochial context (i.e. the LEO network), this is linked to the broader regulatory institutional environment.

This research recognises that language is an amalgamation of cognition and embodiment (Merleau-Ponty, 1945/1962). To strengthen the credibility and accuracy of the analysis, particularly regarding interpretations of embodied meaning, this study utilises Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) (Lakoff and Johnson, 2003). Accordingly, the metaphors individuals use act as shared cultural meaning units (Smith et al., 2022) through which they interpret their daily experiences (Lakoff and Johnson, 2003). A classic example is the metaphor institutions are the rules of the game (North, 1990), which underpins the prevalent view of entrepreneurship as a competitive game with regulations set by powerful institutions (Sarasvathy et al., 2020). In essence, CMT highlights how individuals understand abstract concepts by relating them to more familiar, concrete ones (Grady, 1997; Lakoff and Johnson, 2003). Conceptual metaphors also represent image schemas (Grady, 1997; Lakoff and Johnson, 2003) in which individuals may project spatial imagery to make sense of abstract concepts or experiences. For instance, it can be said that the institutional landscape is a maze, meaning that the rules of the game are complex and challenging to navigate. Hence, image schemas are mapped into cognitive frames to capture one's embodied experience of the lifeworld.

Research context: the Local Enterprise Office in Ireland

The LEO was established in 2014 as a first-stop shop for potential, nascent, and existing entrepreneurs in Ireland (DETE - Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment, 2023). According to Government documents (e.g. Local Enterprise Office, 2022), LEO's primary goal is to support (and boost) business capacity, competitiveness, innovation, and job creation, with a strong emphasis on economic development targets.

While disaggregated data by sex is sparse, data from 2012–2015 showed that women represented the majority in LEO's training and mentoring services (57%). However, they received only about a quarter (26%) of the financial support availed during the same period (Fitzsimons and O’Gorman, 2016). This data reveals a significant gender gap in funding access, which can be partly explained by the eligibility criteria for financial support available through the LEO. As read on their website (Local Enterprise Office, no date), “priority must be given to enterprises in the manufacturing or internationally traded services sectors”, excluding retail, personal and professional services as they are “considered to give rise to unacceptable deadweight … and/or displacement”. These may indirectly discriminate against women who represent the majority in the disqualifying groups (e.g. women have 82% participation in consumer and business services, against 71% for men; Fitzsimons and O’Gorman, 2022), even though their participation in exports has been increasing.

To summarise, Irish entrepreneurship policies and, particularly, the supports available through the LEO are examples of how the institutional regulatory environment may adopt the EO as its normative orientation, from which access to resources is conditioned. This article proposes a shift towards PO to understand how women navigate gendered contexts, contending that EO is a gendering process.

Participant selection

Several scholars (Henry et al., 2016; Jennings and Brush, 2013; Marlow et al., 2019) have argued for a move away from comparing women entrepreneurs directly to men. Jennings and Brush (2013) highlighted the limitations of this approach while Henry et al. (2016) advocated for qualitative methodologies that integrate a feminist critique into its methods. This shift is necessary because women entrepreneurs, as Hechavarría et al. (2024) pointed out, are not a “monolithic class”. Their experiences vary greatly, and these nuances deserve in-depth exploration (Henry et al., 2016). Accordingly, women are approached as the experts in entrepreneurship, from which objective knowledge (i.e. theories and meta-discourses) should be scrutinised (Smith et al., 2022).

Within IPA, participants are selected based on their shared experience of a phenomenon, and the sampling is designed to offer insight into a particular experience, “represent[ing] a perspective, rather than a population” (Smith et al., 2022, p. 43). As such, the research applies a purposeful homogenous sampling technique (Cope, 2011; Smith et al., 2022). Participants were chosen based on whether they availed of, or have sought, any support provided by the LEO in the previous 24 months from the interview (see Table 3 in the next section for a descriptive profile of participants). They were recruited mainly from the LEO networking groups for women entrepreneurs in the Dublin region, resulting in a cohort with a diverse demographic profile (e.g. different age groups, nationalities, business stages, etc.), although with a shared experience of the phenomenon explored.

While there is no agreement about the exact number of participants in IPA, there is an increasing consensus towards smaller samples, which is directly related to its commitment to in-depth exploration and idiographic approach (Smith et al., 2022). A Research Ethics Application was submitted to the Research Integrity and Ethics Committee in August 2021 to ensure the research's thorough compliance.

Data collection and analysis process

Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, as Smith et al. (2022) recommended due to its potential to gather rich reflexive data. All participants chose to have online interviews conducted on MS Teams and video-recorded with participants' permission. They lasted between 50 and 90 min each. The interviews were phenomenological (e.g. based on experiential accounts; Smith et al., 2022) and divided into four thematic areas: (1) information about the nature of the participants' businesses; (2) their experiences with the LEO; (3) participants' gender and entrepreneurial identity; and (4) general experience within the Irish entrepreneurial space.

Smith et al. (2022) recommended a flexible heuristic framework for data analysis involving several steps adapted to the present research. NVivo (version 14) was used to support data management and develop an audit trail (Vicary et al., 2017). The data analysis process (see Table 2) included detailed case-by-case and line-by-line exploratory noting, particularly how women articulated their experiences through conceptual metaphors. Integrating CMT into the data analysis process was a time-consuming and initially challenging task, although resulting in a methodological contribution. However, IPA's comprehensive analytical process, including descriptive, linguistic and conceptual notes of the transcripts, facilitated a smooth amalgamation. Some of the metaphors commonly used by participants were similarity is alignment (Grady, 1997, p. 283) and social groups are containers (i.e. an extension of the “container” metaphor; Lakoff and Johnson, 2003, p. 38). They illustrated, for instance, their mis/alignment with the LEO and sense of belonging (e.g. insiders or outsiders).

The following steps included a phenomenological reduction and grouping experiential statements into Personal Experiential Themes (PETs). All cases were analysed individually, and just then, a cross-case analysis was carried out, aiming to find converging and diverging PETs. These were clustered into Group Experiential Themes (GETs), as presented in the next section. The last two steps consisted of writing the research findings, giving a full account of the data analysis process, and critically revising theoretical constructs based on research findings. The following sections discuss the current research's findings, followed by final considerations and implications.

Findings

If the EO represents a straight line, this can serve as a metaphor for the normative EO, in which the primary goal of entrepreneurship is to achieve profit, growth, and job generation (i.e. firm performance). Entrepreneurs who set similar business goals can be said to be “in line” with the EO. Entrepreneurs who set different goals can be understood to deviate from the EO. However, orientations, entrepreneurial or otherwise, are always situated in contexts. The first GET, Women entrepreneurs make sense of their entrepreneurial endeavours through a Phenomenological Orientation, explores women's alignment or deviation from the EO, highlighting the personal embeddedness that contextualise their orientations. The second GET, Entrepreneurial Orientation mis/alignment defines how women enact their situated agency, examines their experiences when interacting with the LEO regarding alignment or misalignment and how they respond to it. Table 3 presents participants' demographics and the convergences and divergences of PETs discussed in the next subsections. As Rockmann and Vough (2023) suggested, Table 4 presents a detailed list of claims directly quoting participants' extracts, including verbatim not included throughout the article.

GET 1. women entrepreneurs make sense of their entrepreneurial endeavours through a Phenomenological Orientation

The current research findings show that women entrepreneurs adopt specific POs according to what matters to them. For some, it's about business growth (e.g. Fiona and Sophie), while for others, it is about community and women's empowerment (e.g. Ava and Maria). In the third group, it varies from autonomy and flexibility (e.g. Elena, Rachel, and Alice) to recognition and status (e.g. Sarah). However, even when women are aligned with the EO, this is embedded in their lived experiences. Participants articulated their mis/alignment with the EO through metaphors.

PET 1.a. alignment with the EO: thinking entrepreneurially is thinking high, big, and future-oriented

Some participants used metaphors such as importance is size (Grady, 1997, p. 291), significant is big (Lakoff and Johnson, 2003, p. 60) and quantity is vertical elevation/more is up (Grady, 1997, p. 285; Lakoff and Johnson, 2003, p. 23), which indicates their alignment with the EO. These generally articulate that something is experienced as important or significant by correlating it to its size. Fiona expressed her mentorship experience through the metaphors above.

I got another guy [a LEO mentor] and he was amazing! And he was very up there, big thoughts, big figures, big future, he could see it all. Right. And I couldn't see that … I suppose I wasn't thinking entrepreneurially enough, you know, and not aggressive enough but, growth minded … all very small, very in the moment, not forward thinking … it kinda fell like he was opening a world of possibilities. (Fiona)

By analysing Fiona's image schema, it can be said that she makes sense of her experiences through a vertical axis. She positioned the LEO mentor as higher than her due to his ability to think big. His privileged position gave him a broader horizon perspective (e.g. into the future). Contrastingly, she occupied a space down below, from which she couldn't have the same big vision and in which objects (e.g. her company projections) seemed small and limited (e.g. very in the moment). Therefore, she was in a growth-minded “space”, which she concluded was the opposite of thinking entrepreneurially. Interestingly, she correlated being small (i.e. non-entrepreneurial) with a lack of aggressiveness, implying it was necessary to reach the top. Fiona could not make sense of big words until the mentor “open[ed] a world of possibilities”, helping her to transcend her previous perceived limitations. Hence, Fiona re-directed her business goals, converging to an EO by aligning herself with LEO's goals. In her words, “right now it's like, move forward, move forward, don't stop, keep going. I want … to get it off the ground to make-make it successful”. As applied in the context of this research, Fiona understands that Thinking entrepreneurially is thinking high, big and future-oriented. Consequently, it is unsurprising that being a female entrepreneur felt like “hav[ing] a lot of power”.

In another case, Sophie's business plans were perfectly aligned with LEO's job creation and business growth strategies.

We're interested obviously to have, er, this person on board with us, er, permanently. It's, er, it's natural thing … having such workforce working and operating in different regions, er, in Ireland … [The mentoring] was on, erm, business expansion and business, erm, gr- growth sort of because as I mentioned we're at the stage where, erm, it's- [pause] it's important for us to attract, erm, some investment … We don't want our business to be a lifestyle business. (Sophie)

She repeated several times that she and her business partner were oriented towards growth, understood as hiring employees, expanding geographically, and supplying to bigger retailers. Using words such as “obviously” and “natural thing” indicates the inevitability of generating employment in the progression towards her goal. By using the metaphor Hiring employees is a natural thing in the business growth process, she naturalised and reinforced the EO as a normative orientation, in which growth and the pursuit of a hierarchical business model are the only acceptable choices. While also applying the metaphor importance is size (Grady, 1997, p. 291), there seems to be some hesitation when talking about growth. By embodying entrepreneurial uncertainty, her articulation may indicate that her business is progressing towards a potential destination rather than a secured future. Interestingly, by being oriented towards growth (i.e. EO), she also clarifies that a lifestyle business is a diversion from a growth orientation, which could potentially take them away from their planned destination. In this case, the decision to take a growth-oriented path means that a lifestyle business represents the “road not taken”.

When looking at contextual cues that would allow Fiona and Sophie to pursue an EO, they briefly mentioned their family contexts. According to Fiona, “it used to be much more difficult, but [her children] are all teenagers now, so it's fine”. This suggests that she could focus on her entrepreneurial endeavours because her attention did not need to be directed to her children. They are part of her work team, helping her during their school holidays. Consequently, Fiona might have been able to align her orientation to an EO due to a confluence of factors, not only because the LEO mentor advised her. Alternatively, Sophie and her partner (also her husband) are a young immigrant couple living away from their families with no children. While blurring the boundaries between personal and professional life, the business became an extension of their marriage. This was seen as an advantage because Sophie could fully commit to the exigencies of a growing enterprise. Contrastingly, other women may have to divide their time between the company and domestic/caring responsibilities.

PET 1.b. Misalignment with the EO: community orientation is a deviant orientation, in which success is building a fulfilling life

Most participants metaphorically positioned men at the top. The metaphor men is up (Lakoff and Johnson, 2003, p. 25), as a variant of control is up (p. 25) and high status is up (p. 24), suggests a relationship between masculine strength and control, which is, in turn, mapped into the idea of social power. Accordingly, Sarah is adamant that within her industry, “you are definitely seeing men going to the top”. Conversely, she places women entrepreneurs “at a much lower level … asking a base-level question”. Hence, by comparison, women is down. As Sarah suggested, the LEO reinforces these ideas: “I find it very interesting that the top positions appear to be all men … They seem to pop up in the photo shoots of the award nights … [while] it tends to be women who we get the emails from”. Sarah's observation suggests a correlation between gender, positionality, and visibility. Women are more likely to be associated with less visible administrative roles, leading to the assumption that they hold less power and importance. This association between gender and visibility was not lost on Sarah: “then there's a whole kind of like periphery of others that we kind of don't really exist very much”. This statement highlights another relevant image schema: men is visible/women is invisible, a variation of existence is visibility (Grady, 1997, p. 284). Hence, by relegating women to the periphery (e.g. down below), the LEO makes them less visible within the entrepreneurial space and, consequently, impairs their visual field. This can negatively affect how women establish a vision for their entrepreneurial endeavours, as articulated by Fiona. It should be noted that Sarah's experiences were not unique; they were shared by others like Alice, Rachel, and Elena. This can be summarised through the metaphor male entrepreneurs are visible at the top, while women occupy the lower, less visible positions.

Other participants (e.g. Maria and Ava) apply a different image schema, suggesting a distinctive lived experience. For instance, Maria is motivated by an ethics of care, which can be understood as a deviation of the vertical axis. In her words: “where the element of compassion starts growing, there are little seeds now that they are spread there”. Accordingly, compassion is a personal value that anchors her business practice. She used the “seed” metaphor to articulate how compassion is a tool that allows human growth. This contrasts with Sophie and Fiona, who linked growth explicitly to the business domain. Moreover, her understanding of growth seems to indicate a lateral expansion (i.e. seeds now that are spread there). Compassion, in this sense, can be seen as a horizontal line that reaches towards others in a relationship of trust and understanding. It is not by chance that Maria stated that becoming an entrepreneur is “a big learning curve and a work in progress”. As such, she articulated her efforts to embrace the entrepreneurial identity as a “big curve”. When this expression is contrasted with the metaphor normal is straight, (Grady, 1997, p. 293), it can be said that to embrace the normative EO she may need to deviate from her initial orientation. Hence, community orientation is a deviant (entrepreneurial) orientation.

Elena, Alice, and Rachel adopted diverse orientations, sometimes aligned with the EO and sometimes deviating from it. For example, Elena's meaning of success varied over time, either focusing on financial achievements or more intangible elements, which can be summarised through the metaphor entrepreneurial success is building a fulfilling life.

Erm, I think for me it's [the meaning of success] changed over the years. For the first couple of years … I've made a job for myself … So would have been little wins like that and then … set my first invoice for over a certain amount … It's things like that that I see as success and then also and I'm still able to [laughter] to fit in exercise and to, you know, have good relationships with people around me … So it's like success for me isn't just th- the dollar amount it- it's sort of a whole-- holistic view of things. (Elena)

Elena defined “little wins” as milestones towards her goals (e.g. financial independence and work-life balance). As such, she applied a combination of quantitative and qualitative targets that indicated her incremental progression in which success was holistically integrated into her professional and personal life. By articulating success as small things, she also challenged the normative discourse that equates it to traditional notions of growth. While valuing autonomy, Rachel shifted her orientation away from the EO after having a child.

Erm, I have had a baby … so that's put some slow- slowed- slowed down on the growth … The big thing for me with having the baby was realising that … I needed a lot more flexibility. (Rachel)

Upon delivering her child, Rachel placed a greater value on time flexibility. Her family commitments brought her attention “down” to her baby, slowing her business growth. Her case also supports the argument that an EO is contingent on contextual factors, particularly women's caring responsibilities. Hence, family commitments are a driving factor that shifts one's orientation away from the Entrepreneurial Orientation.

To summarise, this section explored how some women entrepreneurs aligned themselves more or less with the EO according to their PO and other contextual factors such as family responsibilities. Considering that lack of similarity is lack of alignment, it can be observed that some participants experience a sense of misalignment with the EO, as reinforced by the LEO. They may perceive the LEO positioning them at lower levels along the vertical axis due to their gender. Alternatively, they may adopt a different image schema, such as community and female empowerment. This is represented by a horizontal axis through which they make sense of their lived experiences and interactions with the LEO. Finally, other participants may embrace contrasting values regarding success and growth, which conflict with the normative EO.

GET 2: orientation mis/alignment defines how women enact their situated agency

The findings discussed within this section explore how women enact their situated agency when their POs are aligned or misaligned with the normative EO.

PET 2.a. alignment with the EO may lead to gender performativity: femininity is weakness, and masculinity is strength

As explored previously, Sophie and Fiona were aligned with the EO. However, due to assumptions that women lack legitimacy (Balachandra et al., 2019; Patterson and Mavin, 2009), they mitigated gendering through gender performativity. Fiona gave a rich description of this when referring to the fear of “being cross-examined” by a perceived man. In her words, “if you're … not sure about your business idea to go and talk with some man about it … can be maybe a bit off-putting” (this “man” can be referred back to the LEO's men at the top).

I have to be very clear that I don't present as [pause] weak … I- I would be doing much more masculine [pause] [click] er, signals [pause] you know. I would [pause] not being less friendly, but maybe a little bit more formal … So yes, presenting a facade, I suppose … So very consciously I am placing myself as kind of [click] er, not too girly yeah. (Fiona)

Fiona felt pressured to present in the way she described above, in which femininity is weakness, and masculinity is strength. These metaphors reinforce the vertical image schema in which men are positioned at the top while women are at the bottom. As such, gender performativity is about “placing herself” higher on this metaphorical scale. Additionally, there seems to be some internal conflict to balance her “friendly” personality, which can be seen as “girly”, with an image of formality and authority. Therefore, gender performativity is a façade and an intentional strategy she employs to embody the upward concept of strength and masculinity. Using the word “façade” may imply that her behaviour can feel unauthentic. Regardless, by owning it, it can be understood that performativity is how she intentionally enacts her situated agency. However, she also recognised the limits of her personal agency: “so you're trying not to feed any of those stereotypes … Erm, well it's just like: Oh I accepted, that's the reality, get used to it, move on”. She admitted that while being aware of her context as gendered, she just accepted it as her reality, implying powerlessness to enact change at the structural level.

Sophie's experience exemplifies the double standard women can face in entrepreneurship. While she struggles with feelings of inadequacy due to gender stereotypes (e.g. downplaying her contributions), her self-described subordinate role to her male partner can also be seen as a form of gender performativity. Nevertheless, her experience reinforces the vertical EO by applying the metaphor femininity is passivity; masculinity is active energy.

It's sad, an imposter syndrome case [laughter] … when you get the award, just don't feel like [pause] me? … I don't do [pause] stuff like er like [noise] like deliveries because it's a hard men job … So when he does all this heavy and sweaty job and you feel like, well, I stay at home … like I don't deserve it now [laughter] [long pause] [sigh]. (Sophie)

When Sophie won an award, she felt she did not deserve it because her partner was the “man of the business” doing all the heavy work while she stayed home. She used the second-person pronoun to indicate that she did not see herself as an entrepreneurial agent within their partnership, resulting in a conflicting experience (i.e. imposter syndrome). She seems to reproduce gender stereotypes in which women's job is less important than men's. She emphasised that her male partner could achieve more by being an active body. Contrastingly, hers is considered enclosed and passive, as if having a female body imposed limits on what she could do. This is directly related to how she experienced her body as lacking physical strength and, therefore, undeserving of going to high places (e.g. winning an award). Furthermore, judging by the use of non-verbal utterances, there is an uncomfortable reflexivity about her supportive role in the company. Accordingly, she positioned herself as doing “basic day-to-day routine … it's like catching whatever was left er [laughter] from him”. Interestingly, while in a complementary role, she prevented things from falling apart as a passive contributor.

PET 2.b. Misalignment with the EO may lead to disengaging from the LEO or engaging elsewhere

Some participants felt their needs or values were misaligned with LEO's offerings. As part of the first group, Sarah experienced a sense of dislocation in the LEO, leading her to engage elsewhere.

There wasn't anything sectoral-based that I could tap into … It didn't resonate as- as a good fit for me … But yet everybody was being lumped into the same thing, and the assumption was that would bring everybody down to base level and bring them up … The gap in the public sector is being filled by women in the private sector … It's not that we [women entrepreneurs] don't have the acumen, it's not that we don't have the courage to do it. It's not that we're not interested in doing it. It's we just need to see the- the right path in front of us and we need to see it before we can actually be it. (Sarah)

For Sarah, the courses, particularly the ones targeted at women entrepreneurs, were brought to the “base level”, reproducing the assumption that woman is down. Her experience was mirrored by others, like Alice, Elena, and Rachel. Their previous professional experience gave them transferable skills entirely unacknowledged by the LEO. Contrastingly, the LEO directed them to beginner's courses, which did not fit their needs [i.e. lack of similarity is lack of alignment] regarding their knowledge level. Therefore, the courses were of no benefit to them (e.g. there wasn't anything I could tap into). Additionally, Sarah articulated her incompatibility with the LEO as a lack of emotional connection (e.g. it didn't resonate), ultimately resulting in her looking for other organisations. It can be concluded that, by offering inadequate support, the LEO keeps women in lower positions from which they cannot see the right path. This is experienced as a gap that disconnected them from the LEO and its supports that could help them to visualise a “great future” for their companies and orient them in the “right direction”. Nevertheless, Sarah and others implied that the right direction is not necessarily the EO but one that recognises their specific needs and contexts.

In the case of Maria and Elena, their values and needs were misaligned with LEO's orientation, resulting in disengagement.

I- I found it [LEO mentoring] was er [pause] nice but not super useful … I wasn't probably matched with the- the- the- the kind of mentor, the type of mentor maybe that I needed … I veer towards a different type of mentor … And then when it comes to building the mindset, the right mindset … I- I didn't find [pause] [click] them super useful … So, erm, this year I decided not to renew the- the membership … I guess you maybe can- can stay very close to them [the LEO] or- or a little bit less close. Erm [pause]. So yeah, I [pause] I don't know, I guess I found more answers maybe to my questions into other realities, you know, a different kind of mentors as well. (Maria)

Maria used similar language as Sarah to articulate the “uselessness” of LEO's offerings to her needs, such as “I wasn't matched” and “not a good fit”. She carefully chooses the right words to capture her “felt experience”. Specifically, she referred to “building the right mindset”, indicating a desire to develop an approach aligned with her values, entrepreneurial needs and goals, forming a cohesive whole. Moreover, she was aware that there is more than one type of mindset, which, put in the context of PO, implies that she followed a different orientation than LEO's normative EO. This only confirms the discussion in the previous section, which demonstrates that Maria applied a horizontal image schema to make sense of her entrepreneurial experiences. She also stated that she sought more suitable supports in “other realities”. This latter expression suggests that the LEO may belong to a distinct lifeworld altogether, emphasising her sense of detachment from them as she “naturally veers towards” something else. Since she could not make sense of her interactions with the LEO, disengaging from them (e.g. I decided not to renew) was the alternative left.

Based on the similar experiences of Sarah, Alice, Elena, Rachel, and Maria, it can be concluded that needs and values misalignment are tipping points that lead women entrepreneurs to disengage from the LEO and engage elsewhere. Their actions can be understood as their situated agency, as Alice verbalised: “I can avail of the services or not [laughter]. I can choose which service I want to take or not”. This means that while the participants might not have felt empowered to change LEO structure and Government policies, they still can choose how and whether to engage with it.

PET 2.c. Misalignment with the EO may lead to engaging mostly with LEO women-only group

While most participants were somehow engaged with the LEO women-only network groups, Ava fully conveyed the sense of “belonging with”.

I contacted the LEO office and they- they told me about the benefits of becoming a full member [of the women's networking group] … I was not a full member … and then I paid that … Everyone was talking about their own business [pause], and that event, it was really, really, really, really important, it was- it was er crazy quality … D'you know, sometimes women feel that they have to be very, very good to do something. And, you know, the imposter syndrome … but I suppose [pause] sometimes all you have to have this and this and this to start, but I [noise] I feel empowered by this group anyway. (Ava)

Through the container metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson, 2003, p. 38), it can be understood that by paying her membership fee, Ava became part of the women's group. However, her emotional attachment gave her a sense of belonging. Her experience can be summarised through the metaphor the women's network group is a supportive community within the LEO. She conveyed this by employing emotional language that expresses enthusiasm, satisfaction, validation, gratitude, and empowerment. For instance, by characterising their interaction with other women as “really, really, really, really important … crazy quality”, she affirmed the intensity of her experience. Apart from being a stylistic choice, in CMT, repetition signifies that an object (e.g. an event, a feeling, an experience) means more than a standalone word can communicate. Additionally, the group represents a non-judgemental and safe space where she can bring her vulnerable self without feeling dismissed. The group may act as a platform that helps her overcome self-doubt, reinforcing her desire to actively engage with the community and benefit from the opportunities provided by the network. Finally, Ava emphasised the women-only aspect of the network, suggesting this exclusivity contributed significantly to her positive experience.

In conclusion, this section demonstrated how alignment or misalignment with the LEO's normative EO shapes women's situated agency. To reinforce their alignment with the EO, some participants adopted gender performativity, while others found support elsewhere, disengaged from the LEO or limited their interactions to women-only groups. This highlights the complex interplay of gender, agency, and support structures.

Discussion

This article explores women entrepreneurs' lived experiences in their interactions with the LEO, specifically regarding gendering as institutional processes of gender differentiation, resulting in a system of privilege and disadvantage (Calás et al., 2009; Young, 2002). Figure 1 summarises the main research findings by comparing women's POs (Ahmed, 2006) to the normative EO (Clark et al., 2023; Lumpkin and Dess, 1996; Wales, 2016) reinforced by the LEO (Local Enterprise Office, 2022).

Participants' metaphorical language employs a vertical schema (Grady, 1997; Lakoff and Johnson, 2003) which illuminates how they make sense of their interactions with the LEO. This schema positions men at the top and women at lower positions, reflecting the EO. As such, entrepreneurial motivation is narrowed down to profit-motive measuring success narrowly by firm performance (Lumpkin and Dess, 1996; Marlow and McAdam, 2013; Wales et al., 2021). Although existing research has highlighted the marginalisation of women entrepreneurs (Ahl and Nelson, 2015; Brush et al., 2009; Calás et al., 2009; Henry et al., 2017; Marlow et al., 2019), this study suggests that verticality is a normative orientation from which women navigate the institutional entrepreneurial space. Accordingly, verticality reinforces a masculine hegemonic ideal (Dean et al., 2019; Ogbor, 2003) embedded in the EO (e.g. innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy; Lumpkin and Dess, 1996) and reinforced by the LEO. Additionally, the findings demonstrate that positioning women at the bottom as an entrepreneurial space they inhabit (Ahmed, 2006), restricts their visibility. This, in turn, may limit their entrepreneurial potential to transcend into the future (Fielding, 2017b). Nevertheless, while verticality is an important representation of a value system, it is not equally applied by all participants; hence, it is not universal.

Traditional measures of EO overlook key aspects of women's entrepreneurial journeys (Marlow and McAdam, 2013). The narrow focus on firm performance fails to capture the influence of personal values and family embeddedness, which are herein suggested as added dimensions of PO. Alternative image schemas (e.g. horizontality, holism) exist that represent the heterogeneity of women's experiences and motivations (Gherardi, 2015; Morris et al., 2006; Patterson and Mavin, 2009; Solesvik et al., 2019) that are not being contemplated at the institutional level. As seen elsewhere (Morris et al., 2006), success is not all about money and profit; it encompasses, for instance, work-life balance and community empowerment. As shown in the findings, some participants verbalised the misalignment of their PO with the normative EO, portraying their paths as facing different directions. In this sense, their PO is seen as divergent within the institutional framework, which needs to be directed to the “right path”. Conversely, converging to an EO might mean abandoning their values, which may elicit anxiety and disorientation. Similarly, the PO acknowledges the household dimension (e.g. caring responsibilities, support network, and time availability and flexibility). There is extensive research on the household dimension regarding women's entrepreneurship (e.g. Bakas, 2017; Humbert and Brindley, 2015; McGowan et al., 2012), but it is still poorly integrated into entrepreneurship policies (Brush et al., 2009). The assumption is that family embeddedness is not generally pertinent to entrepreneurship, reinforcing the separation of private and public spheres (Bourne and Calás, 2013).

This article argues that the EO can be understood as a gendering process (Calás et al., 2009; Gherardi and Poggio, 2018; Young, 2002) within the institutional entrepreneurial context. While traditionally focused on profit and growth that reinforces male hegemony, the EO overlooks the multifaceted orientations of women entrepreneurs. This narrow perspective may inadvertently hinder women's access to vital resources, material or immaterial, that can determine the success of their ventures. While explicitly or implicitly acknowledging their powerlessness to effect structural change, women may enact their situated agency either by purposefully engaging in gender performativity or by disengaging from the LEO. Similarly, Kubberød et al. (2021) pointed out that women intentionally learn not to belong to assert their entrepreneurial legitimacy. These findings highlight the need for a more inclusive framework that considers diverse orientations, challenging the normativity of the EO paradigm. They also have broader theoretical, methodological, and practical implications, summarised next.

Conclusion

The present research investigated how women's PO aligns, or otherwise, with an EO. It borrows the EO construct as applied to firm (Randerson, 2016) and individual levels (Clark et al., 2023) to designate a normative orientation pursued by neoliberal governments (Marlow, 2020; Marlow et al., 2019) that narrowly correlates entrepreneurship to firm performance (Lumpkin and Dess, 1996; Wales et al., 2021). It highlights the complexities and nuances of women's entrepreneurial journey within entrepreneurial institutions, particularly regarding regulatory bodies. By contrast, women's PO emerges from their personal values and other contextual factors, such as family embeddedness (Bakas, 2017; Chasserio et al., 2014; Humbert and Brindley, 2015; McGowan et al., 2012). However, this is unacknowledged by government bodies (Marlow, 2020), which may result in a misalignment between them and women entrepreneurs. Women articulate this divergence regarding their embodied relation with the entrepreneurial space as a gendered space (Welter, 2020). This misalignment has significant implications. It may hinder the creation and development of women's enterprises by limiting their access to resources in which gender is directly or indirectly implicated. Moreover, such an approach also overlooks women's businesses' contribution to society in general, driven by a desire to make a positive impact and foster community cohesion and resilience (Bakas, 2017; Solesvik et al., 2019).

Research implications

This research offers a novel theoretical perspective on women's entrepreneurship. Firstly, it emphasises temporality as a dimension of context often overlooked in existing research (Lippmann and Aldrich, 2016; Wood et al., 2021). By applying the concept of Phenomenological Orientation (Ahmed, 2006), the article sheds light on how women experience and navigate institutional spaces regarding alignment or misalignment, revealing tensions between them and government agencies. Secondly, the article demonstrated how women entrepreneurs experience the EO as a gendering process (Calás et al., 2009; Gherardi and Poggio, 2018; Young, 2002) that constrains their agency within the entrepreneurial space. However, women are not passive actors in their marginalisation. They co-create the entrepreneurial space by strategically engaging with institutional bodies. They enact their situated agency (de Beauvoir, 2011) by disengaging, seeking alternative supports or through gender performativity (either masculinities or femininities as best suit them).

Regarding methodological implications, the current work applied IPA (Smith et al., 2022) as an underused methodology within women's entrepreneurship, responding to calls for more innovation in this area (Dean et al., 2019; Welter, 2020). Additionally, it used CMT (Grady, 1997; Lakoff and Johnson, 2003) to explore how participants used metaphorical language and image schemas to articulate their embodied relation with the entrepreneurial space. While confirming their marginality (Dean et al., 2019; Marlow, 2020), the present work demonstrated how women employed several spatial metaphors that conveyed their “felt positionality” in relation to the LEO.

This research underscores the inadequacy of current policies and support programmes that solely promote women's entrepreneurship without empowering them (Harrison et al., 2020) by prioritising a narrow economic rationale (Dean et al., 2019). Enterprise support agencies often perpetuate gendered traditional assumptions, failing to challenge ingrained stereotypes that marginalise women (Balachandra et al., 2019; Hechavarría et al., 2024). Disruptive innovations within the regulatory environment are needed to empower women entrepreneurs as decision-makers and agents for social change, fostering genuine inclusivity. This entails recognising the multifaced orientations of women entrepreneurs stemming from their diverse experiences and social positionalities. Accordingly, this article proposes several policy recommendations and key initiatives, as listed below.

1. Adopt inclusive gender language and procedures that cater to diverse orientations, business models, and sizes.

2. Address gender imbalances within their organisational structures, in which women in leadership positions act as role models.

3. Expanding the range of funding and resources available, potentially aligning them with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

4. Move beyond traditional metrics by adopting more comprehensive assessment and evaluation tools. These tools should encompass not only economic quantitative measures, as is the case currently (Local Enterprise Office, 2022), but also qualitative indicators such as well-being, life satisfaction, and social/environmental contributions.

Research limitations and future research

While this article provides valuable insights into women's entrepreneurship and their interactions with government enterprise support agencies, it is not without limitations. The chosen methodology, IPA, and the integration of CMT into its data analysis process have inherent limitations that influence the research outcomes. Firstly, the use of IPA means that the findings are context-specific, drawn from a small, homogenous sample of women entrepreneurs within Western developed economies adopting neoliberal policies. This idiographic approach, focusing on individual experiences, limits the generalisability of the findings. As a result, the insights gained are not representative of the entire population of women entrepreneurs or applicable across different socio-economic settings. This specificity, while providing in-depth understanding, restricts the broader applicability of the results.

Secondly, the reliance on CMT to interpret participants' use of language and metaphors presents challenges. Metaphors are culturally and contextually bound, and their interpretation can be subjective. To mitigate this challenge, the research considered the strength of the metaphor to represent participants' experiential meanings. Additionally, the analysis was cross-referenced with existing literature on conceptual metaphors (e.g. Grady, 1997; Lakoff and Johnson, 2003), grounding the interpretation in established frameworks.

Thirdly, excluding male entrepreneurs from this study limits the comparative understanding of gendered entrepreneurial experiences. This exclusion means that the findings are unidimensional, focusing solely on women's perspectives without exploring how male entrepreneurs might similarly or differently experience and navigate government support structures.

Future research can address these limitations in several ways. For instance, employing a similar research design to explore the POs of male entrepreneurs and their correlation with hegemonic masculinity would provide a comparative dimension. Additionally, incorporating an intersectional approach to examine how factors like race, class, and ethnicity intersect with gender to shape entrepreneurial experiences could offer a more nuanced understanding. Investigating the effectiveness of policy changes informed by the identified relationships between POs and support programs would also be insightful. This could involve longitudinal studies to assess how new policies impact different groups of entrepreneurs over time. Furthermore, exploring women's entrepreneurial journeys through the lens of feminine archetypes could offer a compelling counterpoint to prevailing narratives of the male entrepreneurial hero (Ogbor, 2003). Table 5 suggests some illustrative research questions to address these topics.

In conclusion, while the methodologies used in this study provide deep insights into specific experiences, their limitations must be acknowledged. Addressing these limitations and pursuing new research directions can enrich the understanding of entrepreneurship and guide the implementation of more inclusive and effective support structures for men and women entrepreneurs alike.

Figures

Figure 1

The relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation and Phenomenological Orientations

Table 1

A Comparison of the EO and PO constructs

	Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO)	Phenomenological Orientation (PO)
Definition	EO is a theoretical construct that seeks to measure entrepreneurial behaviour at the firm level	PO applies phenomenological concepts to understand how individuals inhabit and experience spaces, using the body as the zero-point orientation
Key concepts	Innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy	Personal values, motivations, goals, and contextual factors (e.g. family embeddedness)
Theoretical approach	Strategic management	Feminist phenomenology
Methodological approach	Quantitative	Qualitative
Unit of analysis	Mostly, the firm, although current research also seeks to establish the link between firm performance and the orientation of its founder(s)	The individual in context
Contextual understanding	It may ignore contextual factors that lead to different orientations	Experiences are always embedded in specific contexts, in a relationship of co-construction
Motivation and success	Often focuses on profit-driven motivations and quantitative measures of success, overlooking other intrinsic motivations and non-financial indicators of success	Acknowledges diverse motivations, including autonomy, flexibility, and community impact, considering success beyond financial metrics
Gender perspective	Gender might be incorporated as a variable, exploring differences in entrepreneurial behaviour and performance between men's and women's businesses. The latter are assumed to underperform men	Gender as socially constructed. PO applies phenomenological concepts and methods combined with feminist theories, specifically focusing on women's embodied experiences
Temporality	Emerging but underdeveloped. It generally focuses on linear time	Temporality is socially constructed, subjective, and embodied. Experiences are constituted by time/space as a potentiality of the here and now to unfold into the future
Limitation	Can overlook contextual factors	Limited generalisability

Source(s): Based on Ahmed (2006), Fielding (2017a, b), Lumpkin and Dess (1996), McGowan et al. (2012), Morris et al. (2006), Patterson and Mavin (2009), Randerson (2016), Solesvik et al. (2019), Wales et al. (2021)

Table 2

IPA data analysis process

Phase	Step
Experiential statements	1. Data transcription
	2. Reading and re-reading of a transcript
	3. Exploratory noting
	4. Constructing experiential statements
Personal Experiential Themes (PETs)	5. Searching for connections across experiential statements
	6. Naming and consolidating PETs
Group Experiential Themes (GETs)	7. Continuing the individual analysis of other cases
	8. Develop GETs across cases
Linear account of thematic structure	9. Writing up the findings and analysis
	10. Critically revising theoretical constructs based on research findings

Source(s): Adapted from Larkin (2021) and Smith et al. (2022)

Table 3

Participants' demographics, convergences and divergences of PETs

Description	Alice	Ava	Elena	Fiona	Maria	Rachel	Sarah	Sophie
Age group	35–44	45–59	45–59	45–59	35–44	35–44	35–44	21–34
Marital status*	Single	Married	Single	Married	Married	Married	Divorced	Married
Children	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Education	Postgrad	Postgrad	Postgrad	Postgrad	Postgrad	Third Level	Postgrad	Third Level
Nationality	Irish	European	Irish	Irish	European	European	Irish	Other
Business phase**	Startup	Pre-startup	Established business	Startup	Startup	Established business	Pre-startup	Startup
Partner(s)	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
Employee(s)	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Industry	Professional Services – Consultancy	Consumer Services – Education	Professional Services – Marketing	Professional Services – Sustainability	Consumer Services – Mental Health	Professional Services – Consultancy	Consumer Services – Events	Wholesale
PET 1.a.				X				X
PET 1.b.	X	X	X		X	X	X
PET 2.a.				X		X		X
PET 2.b.	X		X		X		X
PET 2.c.	X	X				X

Note(s): * Marital status as married includes civil partnership and cohabitation; divorced and separated are merged in the same category

** Pre-startup refers to businesses that have not started yet; startup refers to companies with 36 months or less; and established business refers to businesses with more than 36 months at the time of the interview

Source(s): Authors own work

Table 4

Claims table

Participant	Original quote	Edited quote	Category
GET 1 – PET 1.a. A Phenomenological Orientation can be Experienced as Aligned with the Entrepreneurial Orientation
Fiona	“On the other side, I got another guy [a LEO mentor] and he was amazing! And he was very up there, big thoughts, big figures, big future, he could see it all. Right. And I couldn't see that and then I was just like and international, and networked and packaged and franchise, and, you know, millionaire, and like selling around the world. And I just like: Who's your man? you know. But actually, you know, what he [the LEO mentor] said to me it took me a while. But actually now I've had inquiries [pause] from [country 1] and maybe to sell it to [country 2] and maybe sell it to, wherever, [country 3]. I don't know about [country 3]. But anyway. Er so it's like okay, so maybe this is packageable and now- now with my Lean process everything is much clearer, if moves that much closer to do.”	“I got another guy [a LEO mentor] and he was amazing! And he was very up there, big thoughts, big figures, big future, he could see it all. Right. And I couldn't see …”	Anchor → alignment with the EO (importance is size; significant is big; more is up)
	“Er okay so I didn't think about as being scalable and repeatable, [pause] number one. And this is what the franchise business people are looking for, scalable and repeatable and know your customers. So I think maybe I was just a bit naive or [pause] just not thinking about it strategically. Okay and he was so strategic. This was his-- he was so skilled that he could see plans in the future, you know [click] Er so [pause] I had thought this is my small business. I will do this in Dublin. It can be great. And now I have a list waiting for national, if I could roll it out nationally and, you know, possibly internationally. Especially if I could pull the other two things with it, and I could have a package. Very happy and I would sell it worldwide [pause] So [pause] yeah I wasn't thinking [pause] I suppose I wasn't thinking entrepreneurially enough, you know, and not aggressive enough but growth minded I wasn't in that space. I was in “oh I just have to get this off the ground and get it done! oh I just have to survive this year! oh I just need to get a bit of money in”, you know. All very small, very in the moment, not forward thinking. [pause] And then when he [the mentor] said it to me [pause] it kinda fell like he was opening a world of possibilities [pause] you know. And the whole [LEO mentorship] experience was so positive and even so supportive so ahh! just so good, just so good, can't praise him enough, you know./--/Yeah.”	“… I suppose I wasn't thinking entrepreneurially enough, you know, and not aggressive enough but growth minded … All very small, very in the moment, not forward thinking … it kinda fell like he was opening a world of possibilities.”	Anchor → alignment with the EO (importance is size; significant is big; more is up)
Fiona	“Er well, I feel that I have a lot of power [by being a female entrepreneur] [pause] erm I make all the decisions [pause] I pay myself or not, depending on the bank. Erm [pause] [click] I think, you know, you make your own decisions you stand on your feet and you never die by it kind of so. [pause] Er right now it's like, move forward, move forward, don't stop, keep going. I want this business to be successful and I have to put in the work to do it. Also I'm kind of looking, this is your ten-year plan, ten years to get this business to get it off the ground to make- make it successful, maybe to franchise it and to export around the world. Ten years, get on with it, you know. So yeah, no, delighted with it at the moment.”	“I have a lot of power.” “Right now it's like, move forward, move forward, don't stop, keep going. I want … to get it off the ground to make- make it successful.”	Partial Tantalising → alignment with the EO.
Sophie	“Well, er it's obvious that small businesses at some point they need to er to trade off. So it's either you keep working for yourself, but you do everything yourself and you burnout, at some point. You just can't, you need to delegate erm but there is an obstacle, sometimes you just can't offer a stable income to a hired person, so [deep breath], for now, we have er someone working for commission for us and it's working well. At the same time we're interested obviously to have er this person on board with us er permanently. It's er it's natural thing. Er and we're looking into some financial support from financial institutions for that [hiring an employee] because it will give us an opportunity like if this person working for us permanently er they will have some sort of a quota to- to filling, to bring us stable sales, to open up let's say hundred accounts, hundred customers. [click] Erm and er it's fine. Such people, they er we're looking into having such workforce working and operating in different regions er in Ireland.”	“We're interested obviously to have er this person on board with us er permanently. It's er it's natural thing … having such workforce working and operating in different regions er in Ireland …”	Tantalising → alignment with the EO (growth-orientation)
	“It [the mentoring] was on erm business expansion and business erm gr- growth sort of because as I mentioned we're at the stage where erm it's- [pause] it's important for us to attract erm some investment and er we're er interested in targeting different erm er sales channels, so it's [retailers] because we're talking here about larger erm er [noise] larger stock so er [larger retailers] may order, I don't know, twenty, fifty pallets at a time and erm it's good movements. Erm it's always good for your [noise] papers [laughter]. Anyway.”	“… [The mentoring] was on erm business expansion and business erm gr- growth sort of because as I mentioned we're at the stage where erm it's- [pause] it's important for us to attract erm some investment …”	Tantalising → alignment with the EO (growth-orientation)
	“But we looked for mentoring on this erm on this matter and er also maybe some help with how to approach different types of investors. So one of the particular questions in here we were interested in getting advice on business angels [pause] er support like, how do they work, what kind of erm help we- we could get etcetera, etcetera. [pause] And and [noise] talking in general, er we don't want our business to be a lifestyle business where, er you know, all the profits you make er is your salary. No, we want to reinvest er the- the money obviously, and erm ideally would like to hire a few erm few people working in different regions of Ireland, as I mentioned before erm permanently, working full time.”	“… We don't want our business to be a lifestyle business.”	Workhorse → alignment with the EO (growth-orientation)
Sophie	“So we avail of some erm mentoring services to help us erm grow the busi--, like to have maybe some tips on how to- to grow and pitch to investors.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → alignment with the EO (growth-orientation)
Sophie	“But the second session when we talked about pitching to investors or, sorry, pitching to different buyers, to [larger] buyers and we talked about products, about its erm er unique selling points and about pricing and market in Ireland, that was a little bit more of my scope. Erm because I like er thinking a bit bigger about markets about people's behaviours and how well the- the product can be erm can perform on a shelf.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → alignment with the EO (growth-orientation)
Sophie	“[Her partner] did talk to [cough] [click] to a mentor at that time, [her partner] was er discussing the possibilities of different kinds of investments because, well, as a business you just- you need some external er financial supports or [click]-- erm it's not like you- you keep feeding your own money to the business, just not how it works.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → alignment with the EO (growth-orientation)
Sophie	“We're always er looking into er [click] erm [pause] [click] er the investments opportunities, or like investments erm [deep breath] what kind of investment we could get.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → alignment with the EO (growth-orientation)
Fiona	“Well, it used to be much more difficult, but they're all teenagers now, so it's fine. [pause] So er [pause] mostly it works well because [pause] my busiest time will be during the Summer. [pause] Er and also then I have-- two of them will come to the [location] with me and can help me do the [activity], and the third one will help me process the [main product] at home [pause] and [help with an activity] and, you know [pause] maybe [help with another activity]. So they're all in on it. And my husband as well, he'll, you know, help me put together-- and they'll all make [another product] with me. So actually, mostly there are help there, you know? So it's fine, it's fine. Er [pause] so I've just kind of told we're not going on holidays in the Summer because I went last Summer and it was too stressful. So we will go on holidays in October and [pause] kind of like when I used to work on my last business and I was like all the staff were off in the Summer, I'll work the Summer, and then I would take them out of school for an extra week in the- in the Autumn, I don't care. So erm so that's fine, you know. They can go away with their grandparents erm [pause] but yeah, mostly they are help.”	“It used to be much more difficult, but they're all teenagers now, so it's fine.”	Partial → family context conducive to EO
Sophie	“I'm not Irish and like my business partner is not Irish.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → family context conducive to EO
	“Well, it's just, er, first of all, we don't have our families in Ireland. We don't have er we don't have friends that are involved in the business.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → family context conducive to EO
Sophie	“But after a while you just realised, thank God, that er it's two of us in the company and [deep breath] in a way that was easier er [pause] [click] since we're- we're also married, so we can talk about little ideas that we have, like okay, how about new products, how about this and that we have like we have some samples of new products, we see it while having dinner and we can open [the product] and think like okay, it's going to be a good seller or not. Er I create some new designs for our [new product] or do some- some little changes to our website. And I show it to [her partner] and we discuss how to do that. Er We together we wrap the- the orders like boxing everything and we discuss, okay, like it's after lunchtime, but literally after that we come back to- to finish our- our work and we discuss okay, we need to purchase new packaging material, can we afford to do this or that can we afford to put some extra on top. And just because it's two of us and we- we can discuss it every single time, that's very, very helpful.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → family context conducive to EO
GET 1 – PET 1.b. A Phenomenological Orientation can be Experienced as Misaligned with the Entrepreneurial Orientation
Sarah	“Erm if you look at the people that are leading kind of the high-end in the luxury market, there are more men. When you look at the day-to-day and the lower tiers, there are definitely more women. Erm interestingly there's quite a lot of erm [click] like family-owned business. So you have a couple involved in it. But definitely the higher up you go in terms of the price points, you have much more gender balance than you do across the industry. So you are definitely seeing men going to the top and actually interestingly like straight off the top of my head, I'm thinking [industry leaders], all of whom are gay men [laughter]/--/straight up to the top of the pile like yeah.”	“You are definitely seeing men going to the top.”	Workhorse → misalignment with the EO (men is up; women is down)
Sarah	“But I could see how er some of the women were responding, like in terms of they would ask a question that was at a much lower level. [pause] And you could kind of just feel that the pitch in the room was- was different and a man would then ask a question that was like so much higher that it kind of-- if you're- if you're asking a base-level question because you don't understand something, 'cause it's totally new to you.”	“At a much lower level … asking a base-level question.”	Partial → misalignment with the EO (men is up; women is down)
Sarah	“Erm I find it very interesting that the top positions appear to be all men in [her home LEO]. We don't seem to hear from them. They seem to pop up in the photo shoots of the award nights and suddenly it's like “oh! so that's who you are”. And they're there to hand out the- hand out the- the nice little trophies to people and things like that. Erm [pause] it tends to be women who we get the emails from. Unless it's just kind of like the- the standard, here's the list of everything that's coming up, that's generally signed by a man. But it tends to be any of the kind of the- the other kind of like erm like here's what's happening in [the women-only network group in her home LEO] or have you thought about doing more mentoring. They all come from women.”	“I find it very interesting that the top positions appear to be all men … They seem to pop up in the photo shoots of the award nights … [while] it tends to be women who we get the emails from.”	Workhorse → misalignment with the EO (men is up; women is down)
Sarah	“I kind of- I kind of feel that erm the people that are involved in kind of like maybe eight-week programmes or that are involved in the like the go lean process and stuff like that, they're the ones that actually build the solid relationships with the actual team members in LEO, and then there's a whole kind of like periphery of others that we kind of don't really exist very much.”	“Then there's a whole kind of like periphery of others that we kind of don't really exist very much.”	Tantalising → misalignment with the EO (men is up; women is down)
Sarah	“But yeah, I never actually thought about erm the fact that actually at the top there are more men and I suppose if you look at the venues you probably have more male general managers in the high-end [pause] [venues] as well, which-- but yet there are female [industry] coordinators and [industry] managers in the- in the actual venues.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Workhorse → misalignment with the EO (men is up; women is down)
Sarah	“I do think that it- I do think- do think that it's slightly harder [pause] [click] erm in terms of we [women] put a lot more pressure on ourselves erm to get to a higher standard before we actually start.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → misalignment with the EO (women occupy the lower positions)
Elena	“I don't know how I got invited to this [event] but anyway I was there as the audience and they had to present their ideas and there was a judging panel who'd then pick out the winners based on their presentation and on previous, you know, other stuff they've judged them on previously. So this was like the closing night event and the teams were all male, the judges were all male er apart from the people who were working at the event the audience was all male, and me [pause] and-- one of the judges said-- he was like “Oh! we-- you know, we're very aware we need to get more women in this” and I really just felt like saying “Well you are on the effing panel you could've pointed out: who are the other judges? why is it all men judging it? why aren't there, you know-- why aren't we equal?” Erm and then afterwards there was a drinks reception and I just felt so uncomfortable like being aware that the people who were walking around hanging at the food and the wine were women and me and then the kind of three add-men staff from the organisation and the rest were just men and I think I just stayed, you know, long enough to be polite and then got the hell out of there. I was really annoyed [laughter].”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Tantalising → misalignment with the EO (men is up –visibility; women is down - invisibility)
Elena	“I think the perception is maybe [pause] certainly has been that women entrepreneurs are just kind of like [pause] [click] you know, “Isn't that nice she has a little business?” [laughter] You know, rather than, you know, like [pause] some sort of I don't know “They're gonna take the world by storm twenty years old guy who- who setting up a business, you know, yeah.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Tantalising → misalignment with the EO (men is up; women is down)
Rachel	“Erm, certainly at those upper levels in terms of the CEOs and the managing directors of [companies she used to work with], yes, a lot more men.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Workhorse → misalignment with the EO (men is up)
Alice	“And I felt there was quite a lot of favouritism [from a LEO instructor] with erm some of the class attendance, er attendees. [pause] Erm yeah, it will be two, three people [pause] [click] erm mainly men actually that he would talk to. Erm [pause]. Yeah. And then-- yeah, I felt a bit-- yeah. Maybe there was a bit of seclusion, or maybe there was, you know, sometimes you connect with people more than others, so, you know.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → misalignment with the EO (women’s- invisibility)
Alice	“I think [attendees were] mainly women there could have been about [pause] eighteen people that attended [pause] mainly women. Maybe so-- if there was eighteen, there would have been about four men. [pause] [click] And I guess, yeah, he spoke to the four [pause] the four men most of the time.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → misalignment with the EO (women's- invisibility)
Maria	“I think the compassion is er [pause] it's not necessarily an act, something physical, it's more about erm [click] making people feel like erm they're listened to and they're heard and also it's about-- it's built by the trust when you help them understand that the struggle they have erm [click] it's er normalising the struggle. So there's a reason why they're experiencing that, and that reason is not because they are erm wrong, there's something wrong with them, but it's because er it's their own way to face challenges, to deal with what's difficult. Erm and so because there's a reason that also means that there's a solution, there is-- there are opportunities to change the situation. So that's, I think, where the element of compassion starts growing, there are little seeds now that they are spread there.”	“I think, where the element of compassion starts growing, there are little seeds now that they are spread there.”	Tantalising → ethics of care
Maria	“Er I love but I'm compassionate about this [the challenges to becoming an entrepreneur] er because I know that it's a- a- a big learning curve and it's a work in progress.”	“It's a- a- a big learning curve and it's a work in progress.”	Partial → misalignment with the EO (big learning curve)
Ava	“I believe I feel empowered by other women. It's nothing to do just with the fact that it's only women, it's just I think it's about empowerment.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → misalignment with the EO (women's empowerment)
Rachel	“I feel very like part of something bigger, part of a- a movement that-- of empowering women to do it.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → misalignment with the EO (women's empowerment)
Elena	“Erm I think for me it's [the meaning of success] changed over the years. For the first couple of years it'd have been I- I'm no longer on social welfare, I'm not on the dole and I'm not trying to find a job because I've made a job for myself. So that would have been the sort of first stage of success. And then the last few years like after that it was kind of like “Oh! I've got my first business that's more than just one person” [laughter] or “ Oh! I've got my first business that, you know, does IT or--that, you know, is, you know, er business-to-business [pause] profile or is something-- so would have been little wins like that and then, you know, I got my first European business or you now hit ten thousand Euro in my business bank account for the first time and then, you know [noise] you know, set my first invoice for over a certain amount so there'd have been things like that or little successes to me along the way and now it's like I'm moving out [laughter] from my parents house, I'm paying into a pension again for the first time in ten years. Erm you know, it's things like that that I see as success and then also and I'm still able to [laughter] to fit in exercise and to, you know, have good relationships with people around me and have a social life, you know, all those things are wrapped up in success for me. It's not just about, you know-- I remember seeing someone had put up a [pause] a thing about, you know, being the six figure freelancer and they've written on it I just [laughter] (couldn't be honest) [laughter] and (that's kind of like I view it's like) yeah it could be a six figure freelancer but would I be any happier? Would I be, you know [pause]would it mean I'd be working eighty hours a week or, you know, so it's like success for me isn't just th- the dollar amount it- it's sort of a whole-- holistic view of things erm …”	“Erm I think for me it's [the meaning of success] changed over the years. For the first couple of years … I've made a job for myself … So would have been little wins like that and then … set my first invoice for over a certain amount … It's things like that that I see as success and then also and I'm still able to [laughter] to fit in exercise and to, you know, have good relationships with people around me … so it's like success for me isn't just th- the dollar amount it- it's sort of a whole-- holistic view of things erm …”	Anchor → misalignment with the EO (meaning of success)
Rachel	“Erm, I have had a baby in the meantime [laughter] as well. So that's put some slow- slowed- slowed down on the growth. But, yeah, like I- I see it not, you know, doubling, tripling or anything, but, you know, just kind of slow increase each year.”	“Erm, I have had a baby … so that's put some slow- slowed- slowed down on the growth …”	Workhorse → misalignment with the EO (changing meaning of success)
	“Erm, the big thing for me with having the baby was realising that whilst online work is great, I couldn't keep working with everyone one-to-one because what I was doing was getting very busy helping clients one-to-one, but I was on Zoom calls four, five, six hours a day. And obviously with the baby that was just not gonna be possible. I, you know, she is in childcare now but I needed a lot more flexibility if she's sick or, like I needed a business model where it wasn't time for money exchange.”	“… The big thing for me with having the baby was realising that … I needed a lot more flexibility.”	Workhorse → misalignment with the EO (changing meaning of success)
Rachel	“But the business model that I want is not to run an office, to have a team, to have an empire, to hav- [laugher], Do you know? I want it to be primarily me delivering and helping people, and then a very transitory freelance, you know, contract basis of virtual assistants or graphic designers or, you know, podcast editors and things that I can just contract on a much more flexible basis. Like that's the kind-- I- I never, I never aspire to run, you know, a business where I have a whole team of full-time staff.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → misalignment with the EO (meaning of success)
Rachel	“I do still measure [growth] like, you know, with an accountant, we have monthly meetings, we check where I'm making money, where, you know, where things are being spent and everything. But growth [deep breath] and success for me is the impact that I'm having, the amount of people that I'm helping, the amount of customers that I have, the amount of people that download, you know, my freebies or buy my book or listen to my podcast, erm, and those kind of little impacts of changing people's, [pause] you know, attitudes. And I can do this and I can set up a business and I've, you know, learned these little things. And often-- because I help people quite early days of their business, there aren't those tangible, like, “Wow, I made thirty grand, right, you know, fully booked”. Suddenly it's like, no, we kind of chipping away a lot of the things that need to get you there. So it might, you know, it's the groundwork for all of that. So I think that's [deep breath] under-appreciated but- but needed.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Tantalising → misalignment with the EO (meaning of success)
GET2: PET 2.a. Alignment with the EO may lead to gender performativity
Fiona	“That idea of putting on your suit, of going into the office, of being er cross-examined [pause] Erm now whether this is true or not, but in your mind, you know, those fear factors.”	“being er cross-examined”	Partial → gender performativity (masculinities)
Fiona	“If you were a bit younger and a bit less secure and you're not sure about your business idea to go and talk with some man about it. I know these are all things that you might have to do, but this can be maybe a bit off-putting.”	“If you were … not sure about your business idea to go and talk with some man about it … can be maybe a bit off-putting.”	Workhorse → gender performativity (masculinities)
Fiona	“And I have to be very clear that I don't present as [pause] weak [pause] not strong wills, indecisive, you know, I have to be very clear [pause] very on point. Very-- you know. What- what would I describe them as very-- I- I would be doing much more masculine [pause] [click] er signals [pause] you know. I would [pause] not being less friendly, but maybe a little bit more formal [pause] erm [pause] you know. I don't tell them I do weight lifting so I can lift the house, you know, it's- it's, you know, there's stuff-- but erm. So yes, presenting a facade, I suppose, because you have to appear-- and yeah-- and also I'd be dying my hair [pause] for any of these meetings because I wouldn't-- don't want to appear as an older woman especially [pause] because my job is quite physical, you know. [click] So, so there's stuff coming into play there, that, I am aware of, yeah.”	“And I have to be very clear that I don't present as [pause] weak … I- I would be doing much more masculine [pause] [click] er signals [pause] you know. I would [pause] not being less friendly, but maybe a little bit more formal … So yes, presenting a facade, I suppose …	Anchor → gender performativity (masculinities)
	“Yeah, [When meeting clients in person] I would usually wear a dark trousers [pause] erm [pause] erm and a dark coat [pause] Er either [pause] well [laughter] I'm not very fashionable because usually I've got a big hat on my head, we're up on the roof, it's howling wind. So it's not- it's not total business attire. But if I have to go have a meeting in the office, then I will [pause] erm [pause] I will be more formally dressed and I'll put on my dress coat. [pause] So I would- I would actually make a distinction and then if I'm presenting online, I'm again making sure usually I ha-- I have a red or a green jumper [pause] solid colour [pause] no V-necks, no dangly earrings, all those things. Maybe a little lips, nah, actually, not usually. But [click] erm [pause] yeah, I'm conscious of, again, always presenting authoritatively, slowly, eye contacts [pause] brief and to the point mostly [pause] not doing anything [pause] you know, overtly [pause] girly, feminine, friendly, you know. So very consciously I am placing myself as kind of [click] er not too girly yeah.”	“… So very consciously I am placing myself as kind of [click] er not too girly yeah.”	Anchor → gender performativity (masculinities)
Fiona	“So you're trying not to feed any of those [gender] stereotypes [pause] you know.”	“So you're trying not to feed any of those stereotypes …”	Partial → lack of agency
	“Erm well it's just like “Oh I accepted, that's the reality [that men got to talk about how women should present themselves] get used to it, move on.”	“… Oh I accepted, that's the reality, get used to it, move on.”	Partial → lack of agency
Fiona	“Yeah [she feels pressured to present herself in certain ways when she's meeting mentors], because you think maybe you're being judged and [pause] they're going to write a report and it's going to go in and maybe somebody is gonna look at that report and make a decision about [pause] funding or [pause] other stuff. You would-- you don't know, you know. Erm now saying that sometimes if- if I- if I have an important meeting [laughter] I go upstairs and put all my suit, or my heels.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Tantalising → gender performativity (masculinities)
Fiona	“Erm [pause] well [pause] I think- I- I think the best about speaking very decisively [pause] quite slowly, that's all been in the training, but I knew, I knew some of this from before, when I actually worked in the corporate world I knew this thing about how you-- what colour to wear, how to present yourself, your posture, your shoulders [pause] erm about trying to get er to get your voice heard, so all these things. I- I kind of know them in my background er I don't do dangly earrings, but do earrings, pearl earrings, like stupid stuff, you know, stupid. Don't wear nail varnish, you know. Erm [pause] [click] so- so there is all this stuff that came out of er [pause] whatever. Talks e-er talks to-- talk or [noise] whatever, discussion groups from [noise] by men about what they think about various women and the way they're presented.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Tantalising → gender performativity (masculinities)
Sophie	“Erm it- it's sad, an imposter syndrome case [laughter]. [1:14:53 inaudible] because that's- that's the thing like er er-- [her partner] helped me to fill in the er the final financial form because once again we, at that time we just received this er [click] documents from the accountant, because our accountant was a bit late [laughter] and as I was going through I needed to sign these papers and I was going through some numbers, the extracts and I was just asking [her partner] to confirm er [pause] exactly what parts should we submit? Because, I don't feel at ease to share financial information. I know that it's [pause] erm it's available on SoloCheck, for example, so everyone, if they pay they can get all our financial information, no problem. But still, if not asked hundred percent, I don't want to share it because it's [noise] ours. And you always feel like “oh maybe you don't perform well, or this, or that”. I don't know [laughter]. Erm yeah! I was just-- the rest of the- the form [click] application form I was filling in, it was an open-ended er [noise] application. So, it wasn't as- as hard. So basically I was telling [noise] almost the same what I tell you like about our business, about the idea of- er creating the [company] because that's- that's what I want not just [some of the products] er in the entire [laughter] experience of [products from her partner's country origin] erm and [click] it was just er [noise] er [pause] a thing to- to apply, and I was thinking, why not? Because, like obviously, if you don't get it, you don't get it. Nothing change. Nothing-- it's not as er scary. But yeah. When er when you get the award, just don't feel like [pause] me? But I don't-- like in my company I don't do [pause] stuff like er like [noise] like deliveries because it's a hard men job. Obviously er it's- it's not exactly, you know, easy for me to- [noise] to move bulky stuff, but erm it's very time-consuming and [her partner] does it, obviously. So when he does all this heavy and sweaty job and you feel like, well, I stay at home, when it's not er er when it's raining outside, I stay at home under my roof and then do the stuff like I don't deserve it now [laughter] [long pause] [sigh] Nah you- it was very erm [pause] [click] pleasing in a way, because [pause] [noise] every single time, every-- I think every person feels that way, that you're not performing good, you didn't achieve anything or [deep breath] you have er low self-esteem. You have, I don't know, er just don't believe in yourself or so. I do struggle with that because, well [noise] I- I- I think [pause] [click] I do believe that [her partner] does way more than me, all that stuff [deep breath].”	“It- it's sad, an imposter syndrome case [laughter] … When er when you get the award, just don't feel like [pause] me? … I don't do [pause] stuff like er like [noise] like deliveries because it's a hard men job … So when he does all this heavy and sweaty job and you feel like, well, I stay at home … like I don't deserve it now [laughter] [long pause] [sigh].”	Anchor → gender performativity (supportive role)
Sophie	“I er follow up with clients, I do basic day-to-day routine with bookkeeping, I do erm websites, I do all the marketing, social media, I do all the photography. So er to be honest it's like catching whatever was left er [laughter] from him, from my business partner.”	“basic day-to-day routine … it's like catching whatever was left er [laughter] from him, from my business partner.”	Workhorse → gender performativity (supportive role)
Sophie	“[Pause] Hmmm that's [being an entrepreneur in a woman's body], there are some er some things that I can't perform, including heavy-duty like lifting boxes	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → gender performativity (supportive role)
GET2 – PET 2.b. Misalignment with the EO may lead to disengaging from the LEO or engaging elsewhere
Sarah	“There wasn't anything sectoral based that I could tap into because I wasn't working in the sectors that they were putting the- putting the stuff together in. And those packages all seemed really good, like there are lean in business, but you have to be established to get into that one. Like their, you know, erm [click] what the [an industry network group promoted by her local LEO], whatever that one is, which is the [industry] one erm [pause] [click] I didn't think that I fitted into that. I probably do, but I, at the time when I read it, it didn't resonate as- as a good fit for me er and obviously they do the [specific industry targeted by her home LEO] as well and then they do the exporting. So I wasn't ever gonna go anywhere near exporting because I'm like very localised and and- and service led.”	“There wasn't anything sectoral based that I could tap into … it didn't resonate as- as a good fit for me …”	Workhorse → misalignment, dislocation
	“Like because the needs are just so different when it comes to social media, but yet everybody was being lumped into the same thing, and the assumption was that would bring everybody down to base level and bring them up, but they didn't bring us up quick enough.”	“… but yet everybody was being lumped into the same thing, and the assumption was that would bring everybody down to base level and bring them up …”	Partial → misalignment
	“The gap in the public sector is being filled by women in the private sector.”	“… The gap in the public sector is being filled by women in the private sector …”	Workhorse → misalignment, engaging elsewhere
	“It's not that we don't have the acumen, it's not that we don't have the courage to do it. It's not that we're not interested in doing it. It's we just need to see the- the right path in front of us and we need to see it before we can actually be it. And [change] it's just slow in the public sector. It is not being drip-fed in at all. But there are other structures that are happening around, that are going to bypass.”	“… It's not that we don't have the acumen, it's not that we don't have the courage to do it. It's not that we're not interested in doing it. It's we just need to see the- the right path in front of us and we need to see it before we can actually be it.”	Partial → misalignment, engaging elsewhere
Sarah	“I'm like which bit on my application, if I've run a business for eight years, do you not get? And I know from having looked into what's in that course that it is literally taking you from an idea and explaining how to get your tax set up, how to get your business structure set up and how to get a basic structure around your business. It's like I've done that, I've gone well way past that and you're sending me back to do that? And the other piece of advice they gave me was to join the local erm Network Ireland for [the region she's moving to] [click] which is like a women's business group. And I said, “why are you sending me to a women's business group? Would you send a man to a male networking group? Is that appropriate? And are you say-- are you doing that because I have a perceived girly business? because it's about [her industry]? that you're telling me to go and play with the- play with the other girls? rather than saying, d'you know what, there's a startup hub, why don't you go down there. Why aren't they directing me to go and say, have a look in- in [regional startup hub] and go and see what they're doing in the tech startup down there? There's a great system and a great network for startup businesses down there that you might be able to tag into. They're sending me to a business group and they're sending me to a startup. Thing that I'm well (into) I could bloody run that course. That's what I found interesting, because I would query whether a man would have got that feedback.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Tantalising → misalignment, dislocation
Alice	“And they talk, yeah, probably a bit too much about the finance and [pause], yeah, there was a lot of stuff that wasn't-- I wasn't overly interested in, but I just had to sit through it [pause], you know. I-I didn't think it was necessary, it was good to kind of go, right? Yeah. I have to do this. I have to do this, you know, [pause] later on, but it wasn't necessary. So it was nice to just have that [pause] and [pause] not to take it too seriously at this moment, you know, at that time [pause] about exactly how you're going to do your accounts or get somebody to do them for you.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → misalignment
Alice	“Well [in terms of decision-making power in relation to LEO], I can avail of the services or not [laughter]. I can choose which service I want to take or not. Erm I could choose if I attend an event. [pause] Erm sometimes you think you- you know that event is going to be about this and when you go into it [pause] it's a little bit different to what you expect [click] then you can have the opportunity to leave, so that's a decision that you can make. And I usually send, you know, message to the host to say whatever erm sorry, you know this- this is not what I thought it was, thanks for your time etcetera and then leave. And [pause] yeah, I have the decision to join any of the future events that are going to be there. [pause] So nothing's forced? Yeah.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Tantalising → misalignment, agency to disengage
Elena	“And I do think that LEOs way of measuring about, you know, how much you can grow and, you know, all of that [pause] stuff is quite-- is too quite-- er [pause] maybe unintentional biased towards male businesses.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → misalignment, exclusion
Elena	“I think [the LEO] have a particularly set of lenses on and I think- I think one of the things that really [pause] jars with me, or certainly over the last few years erm you know, and- and it's probably of sort of more or less said it earlier is that they think, you know, women in business need to be inspired and hear stories about women who've overcome the challenges of looking after their families and running their business and those sorts of-- it's a very gendered view of women in business er which I know it's- sort of-- sounds like an oxymoron [laughter] itself a gendered view women in business but er how can it not be? erm but [noise] I just got little bit sick of the sort of inspiring talks and, you know, it's like a little less conversation, little more action yeah. Er talk is cheap! When they came down to like actually getting funding or getting a place on a programme it felt like that was harder to deal because you're in this separate silo or in this other bubble or you're a woman in business and you're one-person business er so, you know, yeah they don't-- they maybe don't see the same-- view things with the same potential as if, you know, you're a guy with an IT business.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → misalignment, exclusion
Elena	“I don't wanna [laughter] shit all over the inspirational talks because I know they have a place for people but I think when you get to a certain point with your business you're just like - I'm done with the Instagram inspirational stuff and I just need like “This is what I need practical help.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → misalignment, disengaging
Elena	“Yeah I think [the LEO is very good] for maybe-- for like-- people starting out and maybe less so I- I guess [the LEO is less good] now I'm in th- I suppose the scaling part.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → misalignment, engaging elsewhere
Elena	“I'll be- I'll be half-shit when it comes to LEO looking for stuff, you know, it'll be like look- look at this, you know, erm so yeah I don't know it- it's yeah.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Tantalising → misalignment, disengaging
Elena	“I probably would be more likely to go to the non-LEO stuff for a lot of the kind of information that I would be looking for.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Workhorse → misalignment, engaging elsewhere
Rachel	“I never availed of any of the- the co-- like the kind of short courses or anything like that. Primarily because I just felt like I knew quite a lot of that stuff anyway. I'd taught myself a lot of it. I'd learned it from other people and I was-- didn't want to spend [pause] time primarily because they're very affordable courses, but I kind of thought I probably am a bit too advanced for that.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → misalignment
Rachel	“No [she hasn't availed of LEO's mentorship programme]. Erm, [pause] [sigh] again, because I've actually always paid for a coach or a mentor, erm, and also because I've heard [pause] mixed things, generally good, but [pause] like I know mentorship works best on a kind of ongoing basis. And again, like I wasn't really sure who the mentors would be or if they would understand my business model or be people that I would be, [pause] you know, aspiring to be like. Or whether it would be, yeah, just be a bit of a waste of time. So I- I've kind of always paid for that coaching, mentoring advice rather than doing because-- is it free, is it free service, I think, is it? or for like- like not huge amount of money. So no, I've never really looked into it.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Tantalising → misalignment, engaging elsewhere
Rachel	“I've actually always paid for a coach or a mentor, erm, and also because I've heard [pause] mixed things, generally good, but [pause] like I know mentorship works best on a kind of ongoing basis.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Workhorse → misalignment, engaging elsewhere
Maria	“I- I found it was er [pause] nice but not super useful. Erm [click] [pause] I- I guess sometimes erm [pause] what happens with mentoring you [pause] you enjoy being mentored and you enjoy the mentoring when you have somebody in front of you, which has a very good understanding of your erm [pause] type of business. Erm I know somebody can say “oh! it's coaching, it's- it's having a virtual practice, but still erm [pause] I found the [laughter] th- I wasn't probably matched with the- the- the- the kind of mentor, the type of mentor maybe that I needed.”	“I- I found it was er [pause] nice but not super useful … I wasn't probably matched with the- the- the- the kind of mentor, the type of mentor maybe that I needed …”	Tantalising → misalignment
	“But I- I mean [noise] like naturally then I veer towards a different type of mentor and- and so I'm in-- I think it's easier when you- when you are willing to invest some money to find a mentor that is more in line, you know, with- with your needs and they know (it) very well erm how building a practice of this kind of works. Erm. Yeah.”	“… I veer towards a different type of mentor …”	Partial → misalignment, disengaging
	“When it comes to building the mindset, the right mindset erm and also [pause] [click] about building- building the strategy I- I didn't find [pause] [click] them super useful”	“… When it comes to building the mindset, the right mindset … I didn't find [pause] [click] them super useful …”	Partial → misalignment
	“So erm this year I decided not to renew the- the membership.”	“… So erm this year I decided not to renew the- the membership ….”	Workhorse → disengaging
	“I guess you maybe can- can stay very close to them [the LEO] or- or a little bit less close. Erm [pause]. So yeah, I [pause] I don't know, I guess I found more answers maybe to my questions into other realities, you know, a different kind of mentors as well and so I'm [pause] [click] I've been willing maybe to- to spend [noise] to invest some money in that direction because I've seen [pause] er more turnaround from following that [mentors outside the LEOs] and- and not only some-- it's not only just financial, which is important of course, it's also like, I feel more at ease by following their advice because it's [pause] er [pause] it- it makes me do business in a way that feels more er right for the th-- my type of personality and also for my erm [pause] for my, I don't know, a- a lot of the, for example, the- the- the marketing strategies that are told they are the classic er marketing strategies, I'm talking about the LEO courses which are- are- are- er are good but they don't speak to me and necessarily like I'm going for a more kind of authentic way to market and connect. So I wouldn't find those [courses on authentic marketing] in the [pause] erm in the LEO courses, for example.”	“… I guess you maybe can- can stay very close to them [the LEO] or- or a little bit less close. Erm [pause]. So yeah, I [pause] I don't know, I guess I found more answers maybe to my questions into other realities, you know, a different kind of mentors as well.”	Tantalising → disengaging, engaging elsewhere
Maria	“Erm [noise] [pause]. What I'm not sure is, like I'm asking myself, it's been a while now that I haven't taken a- a- a- a- a course, like [pause] and I'm- I'm- I'm trying to understand why.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → disengaging
Maria	“I started to see that I can find erm [pause] [click] very erm inspiring people outside of the networks, so I'm starting to connect to erm erm mentoring groups with other practitioners like me and we started to maybe meet for coffee chats or if that's available even I met a few of them in Dublin face to face. So erm it's [pause] [click] I'm experimenting with a different kind of networking.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → engaging elsewhere
Maria	“I guess the difference that- is that-- and- and- and they [the entrepreneurs she connects outside the LEO] are not necessarily groups, maybe they are sometimes individuals that I start following online, that I get passionate about their message and what they do, when I say “hmm [click] we could get on very well and do something nice here, we just share the audience”. Erm [click] so I guess the difference is that when I join a network that is already established there are women there erm I- I have to go one by one and trying to understand which of them are in line with the values and the message of my business, which of them I could bring into, I don't know, my coaching group, and I know that we are on the same wavelength and we- we are passionate both sharing the same message.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Tantalising → engaging elsewhere
GET2 – PET 2.c. Misalignment with the EO lead to engaging mostly with LEO women-only group
Ava	“I contacted the LEO office and they- they told me about the benefits of becoming a full member [of the women's networking group at her local LEO], you know.”	“I contacted the LEO office and they- they told me about the benefits of becoming a full member [of the women's networking group at her local LEO] …	Partial → engaging with LEO's women's-only
	“I was not a full-member, it means that, yeah erm [pause] yeah. That- that was just, just to explain t- that, you know, that I was not a full-member of this, d'you know?”	“… I was not a full-member …”	Partial → engaging with LEO's women's-only
	“So, what happened was that I spoke to [staff member at her local LEO]. [She's] still the coordinator. Erm, I spoke to her back in February. And then I say, “[Staff's name], I- I'm thinking of becoming a full member, okay?” And then she asked me, “Okay [her name], you will need to pay this membership, and you will need to do this and this”. And that's what I did. And then I paid that. Erm, yeah!”	“… And then I paid that …”	Partial → engaging with LEO's women's-only
	“So, on the first event I attended after the pandemic, it took place at [the place of the event] and- and it was about the whole idea of digital marketing, website, and there were two speakers, and, yeah, I found it very beneficial because everyone was talking about their own business [pause], and that event, it was really, really, really, really important, it was- it was er crazy quality.”	“… Everyone was talking about their own business [pause], and that event, it was really, really, really, really important, it was- it was er crazy quality …”	Partial → engaging with LEO's women's-only
	“D'you know, sometimes women feel that they have to be very, very good to do something. And, you know, the imposter syndrome as well that you feel, I don't know, you're familiar with that [pause] imposter syndrome, but I suppose [pause] sometimes all you have to have this and this and this to start, but I [noise] I feel empowered by this group anyway.”	“… D'you know, sometimes women feel that they have to be very, very good to do something. And, you know, the imposter syndrome … but I suppose [pause] sometimes all you have to have this and this and this to start, but I [noise] I feel empowered by this group anyway.”	Tantalising → engaging with LEO's women's-only
Rachel	“Erm. [pause] Like, it [noise] prob- again, probably [she mostly engages with women-only networking groups] because of the- the topics or the things that they cover and again, [pause] interestingly, slightly erring away from like th- th- the fear in me and the- the like, “ohh [click], you know, my business is not really legitimate and I don't have loads of staff and I don't want to go and hang out with loads of men that like”. “Ohh, you know, look at my massive turnover and all these other, you know, people that work for me”, and that kind of attitude to feel like actually if I'm around other women who want to run basically solopreneur businesses where, you know, it's a lifestyle business effectively rather than an empire. Erm, feeling like that, I would be [pause] more at home, more [noise] like suited in those spaces, would probably be my reason for being more attracted to female-only events.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Tantalising → engaging with LEO's women's-only
Rachel	“Erm, to be honest it [networking groups] has been a women's-only one. Erm. So I don't think-- I think other than like [a grant scheme], it's mostly been women-only, yeah.”	Telling (quote not directly included)	Partial → engaging with LEO's women's-only

Source(s): Authors own work

Table 5

Suggestions for future research questions

RQs	Theoretical Framework(s)	Methodology
What are the lived experiences of male entrepreneurs when interacting with government enterprise support agencies?	Feminist phenomenology	IPA + CMT
How do male entrepreneurs' phenomenological orientations correlate with hegemonic masculinity or other gender expressions and behaviours (masculinities, femininities, androgyny)?	Feminist phenomenology	IPA + CMT
What conceptual metaphors are applied in entrepreneurship policy documents (or research/media discourses, funding competitions, etc.) and their implications?	CMT	Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP) (Group Pragglejaz, 2007)
What are the differences between conceptual metaphors used in entrepreneurship policy documents (or research/media discourses, funding competitions, etc.) addressing different genders?	Discourse theory + CMT	Discourse Analysis
How do intersecting factors such as race, class, and ethnicity influence the experiences of entrepreneurs when interacting with government enterprise support agencies alongside gender?	Feminist phenomenology + intersectionality	IPA
What is the correlation between gender im/balance in top positions within government enterprise support agencies and the scope and impact of policies?	Gender theories	Statistical analysis
What are the feminine archetypes that represent the entrepreneurial journey of female entrepreneurs? (It could include a comparison according to industry, growth-orientation, age, and other demographic markers)	Feminist theories of archetypes	IPA (or discourse analysis) + CMT

Source(s): Authors own work