Straightening the Concept of Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Review of “LGBTQ Entrepreneurship”

Abstract

Mention of the entrepreneurship notion often makes it sound like an imaginary creature and does not reflect the reality of the real entrepreneurial realities. Images such as high performance, white male, able-bodied, heterosexual, and cisgender continue to be posited as role models. To “straighten” out the image of the entrepreneurship concept, this study conducted a systematic review of LGBTQ entrepreneurs, a topic that has received little attention in the Japanese-speaking world. In this study, we searched for literature containing words related to entrepreneurship (e.g. "entrepreneur”, "entrepreneurship”, "start-up”, "self-employment") and words related to lgbtq ("lgbt", "lgbtq", "queer", "gay", "lesbian", “bisexual", "transgender", "homosexual", "gender minority", "sexual minority"). Screening was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines, which ultimately obtained 20 references. The results indicate that most of the studies were qualitative studies, while quantitative studies were conducted mainly in North America and Europe. In addition, the purpose of each study were quite diverse, including not only issues of personal identity, but also gentrification and urbanism, keeping space for women and queer people, interdependence with national norms, and re-evaluating/documenting practices from an intersectional perspective with ethnicity and race.

Keywords

• minority entrepreneurship
• systematic review
• entrepreneur
• lgbtq
• queer
• cms