Whilst there has been an increased interest in minorities and their contribution to society, the literature on minorities and under-represented communities is still weak. This edited volume discusses entrepreneurship in the context of minorities and the role they play in society.

The book looks at under-represented communities such as LGBTQ+, disadvantaged, ethnic minority, religious entrepreneurs, medically limited, indigenous, refugees, young/old and other socio-economic segments. It provides a holistic, comprehensive overview of how diversity in entrepreneurship facilitates increased levels of innovation. The book will be amongst the first to take a broad perspective of minority entrepreneurs.

About the Author

Vanessa Ratten is Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at La Trobe University, Australia.

Leo-Paul Dana is Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Montpellier Business School, Montpellier, France.

Reviews

"This novel book offers the opportunity to better understand the complexity of diversity in entrepreneurship in a simple way. Taking into consideration the increased social challenges, the editors and authors set the foundations of further research diversity in entrepreneurship when at the same time the book collects aspects and concepts that are currently under researched by the literature. The book successfully investigates how entrepreneurship can overcome societal constraints and attribute value to minority groups, under represented communities, female empowerment and refugees. Undoubtedly, it makes sense of your reading list!" - Dr Nikolaos Apostolopoulos, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Plymouth Business School, University of Plymouth

"This edited volume is a milestone in our understanding of diversity in entrepreneurship and a vantage point for a truly polycontextual, interdisciplinary, and multifunctional entrepreneurship research." - Prof. Dr. Dr. habil. Steffen Roth, Full Professor of Management, La Rochelle Business School, France

"This book is a welcome addition as diversity in entrepreneurship has been largely ignored by researchers to date. It expands the boundaries of current thinking and offers exciting insights regarding how entrepreneurial behaviour differs amongst under-represented communities." - Professor Thomas M. Cooney, Technological University Dublin, Ireland

"This book is personal. For everyone, and, especially those promoting positive social change through the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to transform our world. The Editors, Professors Vanessa Ratten and Leo-Paul Dana developed a well-organized compendium of essential papers on diversity issues in entrepreneurship. The selection of scholarly works spans across disciplines and will surely find an audience for anyone interested in inclusive entrepreneurship, a topic often not studied across demographic groups, geographic locations, and industry sectors. And, as we can read in this unique book, diversity in entrepreneurship does not just exist for competitive advantage but also as a pathway to support community-driven innovation, economic empowerment for all and respect for human rights. Well done, colleagues!" - Daphne Halkias, PhD, Professor, International School of Management, Paris, France and Fellow, Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School Affiliate

"If we define entrepreneurship as the application of different forms of human creation and innovation to society, the economy, and the business world, then diversity, which is the overarching theme of this book, is inseparable from entrepreneurship. As highlighted in the introduction, a major component of this diversity has been left out of the principal theories of entrepreneurship.

The value of this book lies in bringing together studies on topics related to social entrepreneurship (including a chapter on ecopreneurship) that focus on areas that generally fall outside the main scope of the academic literature. Thus, this book joins the considerable merits of social commitment to academic commitment." - Marta Peris-Ortiz, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia

"Entrepreneurs constitute a diverse population and research on entrepreneurship has contributed a number of important insights regarding the effects of age, gender, and ethnicity on the success and failure of entrepreneurial endeavors. However, by far too often only concentrating on traits indicating diversity that are easily measured, entrepreneurship research misses out on creating a holistic picture doing justice to the role of diversity. With this volume, Vanessa Ratten and Leo-Paul Dana contribute a huge step forward to achieving the goal of conceptualizing a truly inclusive framework incorporating these important phenomena. Focusing on until now under-researched populations constitutes a great opportunity - not only for entrepreneurship researchers, but more importantly for populations usually less considered in research that will benefit from a better understanding of their specific entrepreneurial context." - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Kuckertz, University of Hohenheim, Germany

"Tackling questions of significance in an era of diversity, this book provides a compelling perspective on entrepreneurship. Encompassing a wide arc, ranging from refugees, ethnic minorities and under-represented communities, the edited chapters provide a fora for information and thoughtful reflections to enhance theoretical, empirical and methodological aspects of diversity in entrepreneurship." - Professor Edwina Pio, New Zealand's first Professor of Diversity and University Director of Diversity, Auckland University of Technology, Aotearoa, New Zealand

"Diversity in Entrepreneurship is an extraordinarily important book. It highlights a recent trend in entrepreneurship that focuses on groups that are underrepresented in society and/or neglected in current research (women, refugees, Eco-Entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurs, etc.). The different chapters, written by leading academics in entrepreneurship, can assist researchers, practitioners and regulators in having a complete idea about the role minority entrepreneurship can play in the economy and society." - Dr. Walid A. Nakara, PhD, Montpellier Business School, France

"The strength of this book rests in opening the discussion on a complex and growing topic. This book takes a holistic approach to diversity and entrepreneurship. It describes how cultural capital can be used for business purposes. The chapters offer a comprehensive starting point for further research by suggesting topics and a myriad of theoretical frameworks. The importance of communities and networks for entrepreneurship and encouraging diversity through capital support, education and training and through building an entrepreneurial eco system is discussed. The topic is immense, wide-ranging and expanding therefore it would be impossible for this book to discuss all varieties of diversity. By offering a universal approach and focusing on a few examples of minority entrepreneurs, this book gives the reader a preliminary argument and awareness for how to approach the methodology, theoretical perspective and empirical scholarship on diversity and entrepreneurship." - Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 14 Feb 2020

"The book will enable students to understand emerging trends in diversity and entrepreneurship research that are sometimes difficult to find in references in that field. Entrepreneurship education has been widely implemented in various educational institutions, thus students will find this comprehensive book a good source of empirical and theoretical literature." - International Small Business Journal, June 2020

Book Information
ISBN 9781032090023
Author Vanessa Ratten
Format Paperback
Page Count 188
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g