Inequality and Entrepreneurial Agency: How Social Class Origins Affect Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy

Entrepreneurial agency—the individual power to change environments—is central to entrepreneurship research. Yet, from a social inequality perspective, beliefs in an entrepreneurial agency might differ based on the social class environments individuals are born into. Drawing on social cognitive theor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBusiness & society Vol. 62; no. 8; pp. 1586 - 1636
Main Authors Brändle, Leif, Kuckertz, Andreas
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.11.2023
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Entrepreneurship
Self-efficacy
Social classes
Social inequality
Social mobility
inequality
entrepreneurship education
inclusive entrepreneurship
entrepreneurial self-efficacy
social class
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Summary:Entrepreneurial agency—the individual power to change environments—is central to entrepreneurship research. Yet, from a social inequality perspective, beliefs in an entrepreneurial agency might differ based on the social class environments individuals are born into. Drawing on social cognitive theories, our findings across three data sets among students from Germany and entrepreneurs from the United States indicate that social class origins are associated with entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) beliefs in adulthood. Exploring the underlying mechanisms, we find that students’ early entrepreneurial experiences in education and practice are indicative of reproducing the class gap in ESE. When individuals collect mastery experiences such as social mobility or entrepreneurial success, their lower social class origins turn out to be associated with enhanced entrepreneurial agency beliefs. We discuss the implications for further research on social class, inequality, and entrepreneurship.
ISSN:0007-6503
1552-4205
DOI:10.1177/00076503231158603