弱势创业内涵特征、研究议题与展望

Underdog Entrepreneurship:Nature,Research Themes,and Future Prospects

弱势创业者指在经济、社会文化、认知以及身体或情感等方面面临着无法轻易避免和改变的挑战而难以找到正式工作的创业者,他们是随处可见却常被学术研究所忽视的创业群体。近年来,在学者们的不断呼吁下,该群体越来越得到主流创业研究的重视。本文采用标准抽样法检索并筛选出国际期刊上弱势创业者主题的241篇文献作为分析样本,借助CiteSpace软件对研究主题和趋势进行可视化分析,并进一步进行深入定性分析。研究发现,现有研究探究了弱势背景带来的多重障碍(消极面)和逆境资产(积极面)与创业之间的关系,体现出弱势背景的两面性,同时探究了弱势创业者克服劣势的应对机制,包括网络嵌入、资源拼凑、身份与合法性构建、外部赋能等,以及影响弱势创业的个体和环境层面的情境化因素。本文厘清了弱势创业的理论内涵,提炼出了其脆弱性和独特性两大核心特征,系统梳理了弱势创业的知识脉络并讨论了5个未来可能的研究方向。本研究有助于促进弱势创业从分散走向整合的理论进展。

Underdog entrepreneurs are individuals who are unable to get formal employment due to economic,societal,cognitive,and physical/emotional challenges that they cannot readily avoid and change.They exhibit distinctive entrepreneurial background,motivation,behavior and performance.Based on 241 articles obtained from Web of Science,this paper firstly defines the nature of underdog entrepreneurs,and then employs CiteSpace software to create a knowledge map.In conjunction with an in-depth qualitative analysis,it refines the research framework and key themes of underdog entrepreneurship,as well as outlines future research directions.The findings are as follows:First,fragility and peculiarity are two key traits of underdog entrepreneurs.Fragility puts them at a disadvantage,while peculiarity drives the underdog effect and leads to unexpected success.Second,the disadvantaged background of entrepreneurs has a two-fold effect.On the one hand,it generates multiple obstacles,and has a negative impact on entrepreneurial entry,resource acquisition and entrepreneurial performance.On the other hand,it helps disadvantaged group identify unique business opportunities and develop work discipline,risk tolerance,creativity,resilience,frugality,and other characteristics that help them become effective entrepreneurs.Third,underdog entrepreneurs employ a variety of strategies to overcome disadvantages,including network embedding,resource bricolage,identity and legitimacy construction,external empowerment,and so on.Individual characteristics like resilience,desire,and self-efficacy,as well as external factors like familial support,labor market climate,and entrepreneurial ecosystem,play an important role in underdog entrepreneurship.Future research directions include the following aspects:First,improve the underdog entrepreneurship theory by expanding from decentralized research to concept-oriented focused research.Second,focus on the peculiarity of underdog entrepreneurs instead of fragility,and investigate the process that causes the underdog effect.Third,dig into the social entrepreneurship practice of underdog entrepreneurs,moving away from seeing them as objects of aid and toward seeing them as subjects of action.Fourth,widen the scope of research to include non-economic elements in understanding the diverse motivations and benefits of underdog entrepreneurship.Fifth,develop the theory and empirical evidence of underdog entrepreneurship in the context of rural revitalization and common prosperity in China.By clarifying the nature of underdog entrepreneurship,as well as the research framework and future research directions,this paper contributes to the theoretical construction derived from the underdog entrepreneurship phenomenon.By calling attention to the peculiarity of underdog entrepreneurship,it also contributes to the development of underdog entrepreneurship theory.