Disadvantaged Minorities in Business

This book features contributions by international scholars who have worked to establish a theory- and empirics-based discussion on disadvantaged minorities and long-term economic development. Depending on their socio-demographic characteristics, minorities have long lived under the shadow of the groups, categories, or communities they presumably belong to. Despite the obstacles they have to face, they manage to demonstrate that, above all, they are entrepreneurs capable to start, run, and successfully complete their venture. Their motivations are often assimilated by the research community into 'necessity entrepreneurship.' In addition to the external barriers they face, they have to overcome endogenous cognitive factors that hinder their entrepreneurial intention: anxiety before the future, the anguish of death, generativity, health condition as perceived by others, subjective age, and the cultural gap as viewed by natives, among others. 

The book integrates a diversity of challenges and disadvantages faced by entrepreneurs, allowing the reader to have a renewed understanding of entrepreneurial behavior. On the theoretical level, the chapters emphasize the need for integrating entrepreneurship theory with multidisciplinary approaches, such as the Theory of Cumulative Disadvantage/Advantage (CDA), cultural and geographical theories, and psychological theories. On the practical level, this book would raise the awareness of policy makers, mainly governmental and nongovernmental organizations concerning the disadvantages, and helping them adjust their actions either for local or international programs.

Chapter 'Intersectionality and Minority Entrepreneurship: At the Crossroad of Vulnerability and Power' is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Léo-Paul Dana is a professor at Dalhousie University, Canada, and affiliated with Sorbonne Business School, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.  A graduate of the Faculty of Management at McGill University and of HEC-Montreal, he has served as Marie Curie Fellow at Princeton University and visiting professor at INSEAD.  He has published extensively in a variety of journals and is the author of several books.

Nada Khachlouf is Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship and Strategy at ICD Business School of Paris. She holds a Visiting Professor position at JAMK School of Business (Finland). Her research interests revolve around entrepreneurship, family firms, knowledge networks and collaborative relationships. She is also interested in the topic of people with disabilities' Entrepreneurial entry.

Adnane Maâlaoui is the director of entrepreneurship programs at IPAG Business School (Paris, France). His research focuses on entrepreneurship issues, especially on disadvantaged entrepreneurs (elderly, refugees, disabled entrepreneurs, etc.). He explores topics such as entrepreneurial intention and cognitive approach to entrepreneurship, in particular, diversity and social entrepreneurship. Adnan Maalaoui is the author of more than 20 articles published in academic journals and has published the book Handbook of Research on Elderly Entrepreneurship (Springer, 2019).  

Vanessa Ratten is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. She received her PhD from the University of Queensland, and has sole authored 7 books and co-edited over 30 books. She has more than twenty years university teaching experience and has taught a range of subjects including corporate venturing, innovation management and entrepreneurial business planning. Her recent co-edited books include Stakeholder Entrepreneurship (Springer) and Tourism Innovation in Spain and Portugal: New Trends and Developments (Springer).