Does location matter? Unpacking the dynamic relationship between the spatial context and embeddedness in women’s entrepreneurship

Abstract

Responding to calls for research that stresses the importance of embeddedness in entrepreneurship research, this paper examines the relationship between the spatial context and the social embeddedness in shaping and influencing women’s entrepreneurial behaviour. A particular focus is placed on gender norms, through exploring how embeddedness is gendered and that the gender norms of the context in which women entrepreneurs are and were located can constrain and/or enable their entrepreneurial actions. Furthermore, knowledge about different spatial contexts means that women can orient themselves to different gender norms and entrepreneurial behaviours. This study draws on 27 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Saudi women entrepreneurs operating businesses within or beyond conservative, patriarchal contexts which feature different gender norms (enforced or relaxed). The findings show that when remaining within or moving between contexts, individuals have the potential to embed themselves to very different extents–through processes of over-embedding, reduce-embedding and re-mbedding–reflecting the options available for entrepreneurial action-taking and access to resources.