Not all entrepreneurship is created equal: Theorising entrepreneurial disadvantage through social positionality

The phenomenon of entrepreneurship has historically been viewed as an agential and meritocratic activity, wherein actors can creatively mobilise resources to overcome disadvantaged social positions. However, recent literature highlights entrepreneurship’s socially embedded, processual nature, suggesting that enduring positions in social hierarchies may be more relevant to opportunity pursuit than previously envisioned. This conceptual paper proposes and builds upon the notions of intersectionality and positionality to more fully theorise disadvantage in entrepreneurial activity. Underpinned by philosophical realism, it makes an ontological argument about the nature of entrepreneurial advantage and disadvantage, offering a reconceptualization of its relationship to agency and resources. The paper thus illuminates significant structural aspects of entrepreneurship that are currently under-theorised, and without which the picture of entrepreneurial disadvantage is incomplete.