Search results

This study utilizes Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital and habitus to investigate the networking strategies of Asian and Black knowledge workers in the London Insurance Market. It also examines the factors contributing to the success or failure of these strategies. The trading activities of the London Insurance Market are underpinned by interdependent relations among its participants. It provides an appropriate context for examining the networking strategies adopted by Asian and Black workers to accelerate their careers.

This research employed a qualitative methodology, gathering data from 24 participants through semi-structured interviews. Participants were selected using purposive, convenience, and snowball sampling methods. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data and develop aggregated concepts from the identified themes and subthemes.

The London Insurance Market accords great importance to networking. Interpersonal connections significantly influenced career progression, often overshadowing educational attainments. Asian and Black workers faced systemic nepotism and limited access to influential networks in this field. Participants strategically used their interactions to overcome these challenges and advance their careers. Many believed that their careers had a better chance of progressing through informal networks than through formal channels such as Human Resources. Some participants declined to engage in the commonly accepted networking practices, choosing alternative ways to further their careers.

Findings underscore the need for implementing specific organizational policies to address systemic biases and nepotism, particularly in front-office recruitment. Such policies could include prioritizing merit-based hiring practices and developing targeted initiatives to reduce the underrepresentation of minority ethnic workers in front-office positions. By adopting these measures, organizations can create more equitable career advancement opportunities and leverage the full potential of their diverse workforce.

This study contributes to the existing literature on minority ethnic workers' careers, networking theory and workplace diversity. It provides insights into the networking strategies of Asian and Black workers within the London Insurance Market, revealing that these strategies are dependent on contextual factors. The study also highlights the pervasive practice of nepotism deeply ingrained in the habitus of the London Insurance Market and which acts as a barrier for gaining access to influential networks.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a scene-setting viewpoint that critically examines various diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) blind spots within the field of international business (IB). These include issues such as social justice, intersectionality, de-colonization, the co-creation of inclusive research practices in indigenous spaces, social dialogue and the gap between DEI rhetoric and reality. An additional aim of the viewpoint is also to contextualise the discussion of DEI blind spots in terms of the six papers which make up the first part of a two-part special issue on DEI in IB".

The authors build on existing DEI overview works and comment on specific DEI blind spots. The authors also discuss the role of positionality as critical reflexive scholarship practice, which they see as an essential step in problematizing structural inequalities. The authors then discuss six specific areas where DEI blindspots persist within the IB literature and link their discussion to the six papers included in the first part of their DEI special issue.

Addressing the contradictions between the business and social justice cases for DEI requires addressing the ontological contradictions between the two perspectives through problematizing structural inequalities. A key contribution of the paper is also the discussion around positionality in DEI research and the relevance of positionality statements as part of critical reflexive scholarship in support of a socially just DEI research agenda.

The authors discuss the role DEI research plays and can play within the evolution of the IB discipline. The authors apply a critical management studies perspective to pervasive DEI issues, as well as engage with the topics in the special issue through a unique critical reflexive epistemology which includes their own positionality statements as guest editors and researchers. Their critical discussion and recommendations for future research serve as a kind of whetstone to sharpen IB’s DEI research tools and in turn for IB to help sharpen DEI research’s tools, supporting it to become more socially just.

The purpose of this study is to showcase how entrepreneurial opportunities can be contextually formed differently for women entrepreneurs concerning their relationship with religion. This article reveals the multi-level and nuanced relationship between religiosity and entrepreneurship through a contextual lens by studying the interaction in a specific national country, Turkiye.

The study uses the life stories of 10 Turkish women entrepreneurs operating in Turkiye. Data were selected purposefully to conduct an in-depth analysis. Thematic content analysis with a discursive approach and deductive and inductive coding methods were performed.

The findings suggest that the relationship between religiosity and entrepreneurial opportunities is highly contextual and nuanced. Religiosity brings trust and provides access to religious networks which can lead to entrepreneurial opportunities, while leaving people outside of this network bereft of these benefits. The creation of a closed circle for its beneficiaries is a feature of a social network, yet the results show that contextual forces of politics and gender can lead women entrepreneurs outside of this religious network to limit their possibilities of accessing public funding and facilities based on their perceptions as well as negative experiences. It is also seen that religiosity at a certain level is necessary to operate in conservative settings and traditionally masculine business environments with patriarchal practices and norms, as well as due to the religious affinity of the ruling political party. However, because of perceptions and discursive meanings attached to religion and religiosity in the country, women entrepreneurs need to be cautious in expressing their religiosity and find a balance so that they are not seen as unprofessional, incompetent and unqualified as well as do not jeopardise their business due to a controversial religious affiliation.

This paper is of value as it studies religiosity from a contextual perspective enabling and constraining women entrepreneurs in their entrepreneurship in relation to gendered and political structures. In this way, it displays the multiple ways of limitation and support that religiosity can bring for them concerning entrepreneurial opportunities. Turkiye provides a rich context with its mixed religious and secular societal norms and values and neo-liberal institutions and policies to examine the so-far underexplored issue of religiosity in the field of entrepreneurship.