Lean-effectual entrepreneurship, gender and social value creation: An investigation of women’s social entrepreneurship in India

Vyas, Renuka 2022. Lean-effectual entrepreneurship, gender and social value creation: An investigation of women’s social entrepreneurship in India. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

This interdisciplinary research fuses the lean start-up practice with effectuation theory. The former is rooted in the concept of lean in operations management and the latter emerges from the March-Wick-Mintzberg thought processes in organisational learning. This research combines the two to create a lean-effectual framework and deploys it to understand women’s social entrepreneurial performance in India. This work addresses an important gap in research on women’s entrepreneurship. Though women emphasise social value over economic value and take to social entrepreneurship more than business entrepreneurship, the current scholarly discourse does not adequately explore women’s pursuit of social entrepreneurship. This study investigates it using a lean-effectual lens and generates insights that have value for the wider society beyond the enterprises that it investigates. In the process, it debunks the myth of women’s entrepreneurship underperformance and spotlights their distinct approach in resolving complex social problems through a deep grasp of underlying issues and in constructing effective, enduring and innovative solution mechanisms. Employing a qualitative-exploratory-interpretive approach and through semi-structured in-depth interviews of twenty-three women social entrepreneurs in India, it deciphers their motives, actions, achievements and impact. Through a thematic analysis of their narratives, the behaviours and actions consistent with effectual and lean principles are crystallised to derive the findings of this research. The research discovers strong evidence of the role of lean effectual conducts in forging women’s social entrepreneurial success. It finds the presence of minimum viable products at onset, further development through customer feedback, prudent use of money, forging and sustaining productive partnerships, flexibility and effective management of uncertainty. A strong passion for the cause, support from the family, a dedicated team and diverse funding sources are amongst the non-lean-effectual antecedents. The conceptual contribution of this research is the creation of a lean-effectual framework that combines two artefacts of significant value for the practice of entrepreneurship namely effectuation and lean start-up. Empirically, it shows that the women entrepreneurs whose behaviours reflect a fusion of these two ideas are indeed successfully active in the social iii entrepreneurial space. By showcasing the richer aspects of women’s entrepreneurship it debunks the women’s entrepreneurial underperformance myth and by providing a detailed treatise of social entrepreneurship in India it addresses the paucity of scholarly research in developing countries.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Lean startup, Effectuation, Women’s entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship, Value creation, Women’s entrepreneurial underperformance myth, India
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	2 March 2022
Last Modified:	24 Feb 2023 02:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/147801

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