Edicleia Oliveira, Serge Basini and Thomas M. Cooney
This article aims to explore the potential of feminist phenomenology as a conceptual framework for advancing women’s entrepreneurship research and the suitability of…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to explore the potential of feminist phenomenology as a conceptual framework for advancing women’s entrepreneurship research and the suitability of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to the proposed framework.
Design/methodology/approach
The article critically examines the current state of women’s entrepreneurship research regarding the institutional context and highlights the benefits of a shift towards feminist phenomenology.
Findings
The prevailing disembodied and gender-neutral portrayal of entrepreneurship has resulted in an equivocal understanding of women’s entrepreneurship and perpetuated a male-biased discourse within research and practice. By adopting a feminist phenomenological approach, this article argues for the importance of considering the ontological dimensions of lived experiences of situatedness, intersubjectivity, intentionality and temporality in analysing women entrepreneurs’ agency within gendered institutional contexts. It also demonstrates that feminist phenomenology could broaden the current scope of IPA regarding the embodied dimension of language.
Research limitations/implications
The adoption of feminist phenomenology and IPA presents new avenues for research that go beyond the traditional cognitive approach in entrepreneurship, contributing to theory and practice. The proposed conceptual framework also has some limitations that provide opportunities for future research, such as a phenomenological intersectional approach and arts-based methods.
Originality/value
The article contributes to a new research agenda in women’s entrepreneurship research by offering a feminist phenomenological framework that focuses on the embodied dimension of entrepreneurship through the integration of IPA and conceptual metaphor theory (CMT).
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Edicleia Oliveira, Serge Basini and Thomas M. Cooney
This article explores women entrepreneurs' lived experiences in their interactions with government enterprise support agencies. It investigates the relationship between gendering…
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.
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Cathriona Nash and Serge Basini
This study sets out to capture the consumer perspective regarding the purchase request relationship between parent and child.
Abstract
Purpose
This study sets out to capture the consumer perspective regarding the purchase request relationship between parent and child.
Design/methodology/approach
This interpretive study enhances an understanding of these purchase request experiences as they are lived by respondents. The story of both parents, along with children, is thus considered paramount. Using a series of depth‐interviews and focus groups with parents and children, a key theme emerged through the interpretive process. “The game” permeates their experiences of this request relationship and is virtually unreported until now.
Findings
Contrary to extant research, this study positions the contemporary parent‐child purchase relationship as a positive experience where an understanding of “the game” permeates this natural familial interaction. Furthermore, a tacit understanding and awareness of the intricacies associated with “the game”, including each other's roles, tactics, outcomes, feelings and perspectives regarding “the game”, are considered playful and entertaining by all respondents.
Originality/value
First, adopting a consumer‐centric approach as the focus of this research instead of the much reported “vested interest” perspective added a new breadth and dimension to an understanding of the parent‐child purchase request relationship not previously captured. Second, the departure from extant positivistic research, to an interpretive approach proved very beneficial in uncovering “the game”: a novel departure from previous pester power research.