Entrepreneurial Leadership, Patriarchy, Gender, and Identity in the Arab World: Lebanon in Focus

In this paper, we apply insights from poststructuralist feminist theory to contribute to entrepreneurial leadership. By drawing on 21 individual narratives with Lebanese women entrepreneurs, we explore how they determine their status as entrepreneurial leaders and establish their entrepreneurial ide...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of small business management Vol. 57; no. 2; pp. 517 - 537
Main Authors Tlaiss, Hayfaa A., Kauser, Saleema
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Milwaukee Taylor & Francis 01.04.2019
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Compliance
Defiance
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship
Feminist theory
Gender
Gender identity
Gender roles
Inequality
Leadership
Patriarchy
Sociocultural factors
Women
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Summary:In this paper, we apply insights from poststructuralist feminist theory to contribute to entrepreneurial leadership. By drawing on 21 individual narratives with Lebanese women entrepreneurs, we explore how they determine their status as entrepreneurial leaders and establish their entrepreneurial identities. Although the factors of gender, sociocultural values, and agency can be counteractive, it is agency that creates space for entrepreneurship for women and provides them a means to navigate structural inequalities. The entrepreneurs in this study engage in compliance, disregard, and defiance strategies to expand the boundaries of what is socially permissible for women and to strengthen their identities. This research contributes to studies on entrepreneurial leadership and aids in the development of theory by demonstrating how Arab women construct entrepreneurial leadership, agency, and identity at the juncture of patriarchy, sociocultural values, and gender ideologies.
Bibliography:Hayfaa A. Tlaiss is the chairperson of and an associate professor in the Department of Management at the College of Business, Alfaisal University.
The authors thank the associate editor and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. They also thank the research ethics committees at their institutions of employment for approving the applications to conduct this research. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2015 ISBE Annual Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
Saleema Kauser is a lecturer at the Organizational Behavior Group at the Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester.
ISSN:0047-2778
1540-627X
DOI:10.1111/jsbm.12397