How women in the UAE enact entrepreneurial identities to build legitimacy
Abstract
This article examines how women enact an entrepreneurial identity as a means to secure legitimacy for their entrepreneurial activity. Using a netnographic analysis of media interviews with women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), we identify how women construct an entrepreneurial identity. Findings indicate that women highlight micro aspects of their identity, provide both personal and external sources of evidence to substantiate their claims, and adhere to potentially conflicting institutional logics. The findings contribute to knowledge of how entrepreneurship is legitimised and can disrupt institutional arrangements that constrain women. We provide both a gendered and novel contextual view, adding theoretical depth to contemporary conceptualisations of entrepreneurial legitimacy.
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Biographies
Helen Thompson-Whiteside is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth Business School. Her research interests are in the areas of women’s entrepreneurship, women working in advertising and the self-promotion and identity work undertaken by women as they seek professional advancement.
Sarah Turnbull is a Reader in Advertising at the University of Portsmouth Business School. She has a particular interest in the creative process in advertising and in the research context of the Middle East. She is the author of leading textbooks in marketing communications.
Judith Fletcher-Brown is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth Business School. Her research interest is in social marketing, with a particular focus on health promotion and the role of brands in India in addressing the growing problem of breast cancer.
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Article first published online: November 23, 2021
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