Investigation of The Role of Resilience Amongst Disadvantaged Entrepreneurs Through The Lens of Effectual Logic

Abstract

Entrepreneurship has been understood by scholars as something magnificent which leads to a novel economic ecosystem. However, depending upon different streams, different scholars have understood entrepreneurship in social context, with regards to cognition, behavior, personality, etc. While there are significant studies in the extant literature that focus on the bright side of entrepreneurship, there are a few that discuss stress (Alstete, 2008) relating to cognition and behavior (Hmieleski et al., 2008), effects of external environment resulting in physical fatigue (Burger, 2008), grief (Shepherd et al., 2009), and entrepreneurship causing health issues (Burger, 2008). With known knowledge of entrepreneurship’s murky side, the confidence of an individual to pursue his/her entrepreneurial venture largely depends upon his/her cognition and formative years and especially the disadvantage, if any, with which he/she has lived through the years that results in a resilient behavior (Fisher, 2011). Entrepreneurs face obstacles daily and if one is a disadvantaged entrepreneur, the magnitude increases manifolds (Burt, 2019). Disadvantage of an individual can stem from various factors viz. natural causes like earthquake, tsunami, etc., from political turmoil, immigration, race, color, marginalization, gender and in countries like India where caste system is prevalent, a disadvantaged entrepreneur might find himself/herself at the helm of it facing social exclusion and neglect. At the core of this discussion, lies the fact that early experiences of social exclusion may trigger some individuals to become entrepreneurs and change things around them (Fisher, 2011). How they start their entrepreneurial journey may have some connection to entrepreneurial logic of effectual action, and resilience of a disadvantaged entrepreneur.