Entrepreneurship in Latin America from a sociological perspective: a systematic literature review (2020–2025)

Abstract

Introduction – In Latin America, entrepreneurship has traditionally been analyzed through administrative and economic lenses, often overlooking its sociological implications. This study re-conceptualizes entrepreneurship as a social ordeal analyzing how individuals navigate structural constraints, labor informality, and neoliberal mandates within the framework of the sociology of individuation. Methods – Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, a Mixed Methods Systematic Review (MMSR) with a convergent design was conducted on a corpus of 74 articles (2020–2025). Quantitative descriptive analysis (SPSS) and qualitative interpretative analysis (MAXQDA) were integrated to triangulate thematic trends, geographical distributions, and discursive patterns. Results – The findings reveal an epistemological diversity in regional production: Brazilian literature critiques the “uberization” of work, while Mexican research emphasizes resilience and adaptation. Colombia recognizes entrepreneurship as subsistence perspective. A predominant trend toward group-level analysis identifies entrepreneurship as a collective survival strategy rather than individual innovation. Furthermore, entrepreneurship acts as a social escape valve of the workforce in informality, where autonomy is a forced management of precariousness. Discussion – The study proposes understanding entrepreneurship as a social ordeal, generating a model to increase the comprehension of the phenomenon in Latin America, where individual agency exists in permanent tension with structural inequalities. The model illustrates that this ordeal is unequally distributed by non-elective attributes (class, gender, and geography) and is socially produced through varied regional lenses, from functionalist resilience to critical perspectives. Under neoliberal rationality, the “entrepreneurial spirit” serves as a culturally represented discourse that transfers systemic risk to the subject, legitimizing self-exploitation as a form of “freedom.” Ultimately, the ecosystem forces complex individuation processes, where the subject must tactically rely on informal support to negotiate their existence against a precarious reality. Conclusion – Entrepreneurship in Latin America is a manifestation of mandatory individuation. To mitigate the solitude of this structural social ordeal, public policies must transition from promoting individual competition to strengthening collective support networks and social guarantees that spread the risks linked to motivations originating in need and entrepreneurial ecosystems in development.