Abstract:

Ideologies such as entrepreneurialism shape how actors interpret entrepreneurship, evaluate opportunities, and develop identity. Prior research has primarily explained the propagation of such ideologies through discursive processes, including language, narrative construction, and cultural representations. This body of work has largely emphasized how stakeholders promote beliefs surrounding growth, risk-taking, and individual agency within entrepreneurial environments.

However, this perspective, typically centered on meaning-making processes and the construction of belief systems, leaves comparatively underexplored the role of power in the propagation and maintenance of entrepreneurial ideology. In response, this study examines how dominant actors within entrepreneurial ecosystems utilise mechanisms of power to compel entrepreneurs toward actions and behaviours associated with entrepreneurialism.

Drawing on a qualitative study of technology startup founders in Nigeria, this paper explores how mechanisms of power, as conceptualized by Fleming and Spicer (2014) - coercion, manipulation, domination, and subjectification - may be deployed within entrepreneurial ecosystems to channel entrepreneurs toward business practices aligned with rapid growth, heightened risk-taking, and other normative markers of entrepreneurialism. The paper aims to extend theory on how entrepreneurialism is propagated by moving beyond discursive practices to the ways that power structures can actively shape ideological compliance.

Please choose your submission type: Developmental Paper

Primary Track: Entrepreneurship

Keywords: Entrepreneurship Theories;Entrepreneurship in emerging markets

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Ms. Omeghie Okoyomoh