Entrepreneurship & Regional Development

Entrepreneurship by Persons with Disabilities: Expanding Actionable Research

An estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide - 16% of the population - experience significant disability (World Health Organization, 2023). The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) (UNCRPD, 2007), defines PwDs as “having long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with attitudinal and environmental barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others” (p.4). PwDs are very often marginalized, they struggle to pursue higher education, have limited access to fewer professions, barely enjoy career development and suffer stigmatization and discrimination (Geiger et al., 2017; Beatty et al., 2019). Therefore, entrepreneurship appears oftentimes as a viable route to employment, even if often driven by necessity rather than opportunity (Miller & Le Breton-Miller, 2017; Tessier-Dargent & Fayolle, 2022). Although disability is a complex, evolving and multifaceted notion, the number of PwDs is increasing, representing "one of the largest [and most diverse] minorities in the world" (Swenor, 2021: 359), bearing physical or mental, visible or invisible impairments, calling for further understanding of their specific approach and rationale for entrepreneurship.

Surprisingly, research on entrepreneurship by PwDs is still in its infancy, and the scarce scholarly work on this topic is fragmented, mostly descriptive, sometimes displaying diverging results and is hardly existent in top-tier journals (yet see Kašperová & Kitching, 2014; Renko et al., 2016; Hidegh et al., 2022; Yu et al. 2022; Bakker & McMullen, 2023). It nevertheless appears that entrepreneurs with disabilities (EwDs) may be constrained by the size or industry sector where they establish their firms (Jammaers & Williams, 2023), and earn less for their entrepreneurial pursuits depending on gender, disability onset, age and unmet accommodation needs (Yang et al., 2022). Moreover, recent reports suggest they face greater barriers to business development due to limited work experience and entrepreneurial skills, negative social attitudes, investment gaps, weaker networks, administrative and financial disincentives, and a lack of self-confidence (OECD, 2023). Edited volumes and review articles suggest complex adaptive mechanisms are needed to overcome such barriers (Yousafzai et al., 2022; Sodhi & Dwivedi, 2024).

Nonetheless, entrepreneurship is perceived as a route that might allow PwDs to gain autonomy, financial independence and self-confidence (Martin & Honig, 2020). Disability might even be an opportunity for developing successful and socially relevant businesses, leveraging on their impairments and social perceptions to identify opportunities and build legitimacy (Ng & Arndt, 2019; Kašperová, 2021; Jammaers & Williams, 2023). Belonging to the underdog (Miller & Le Breton-Miller, 2017), disadvantaged (Maalaoui et al., 2020), unexpected (Jammaers & Zanoni, 2020), non-conventional (Bakker & McMullen, 2023), or missing (OECD, 2023) sub-categories of entrepreneurs, EwDs must still fight for “a seat at the table” (Boyce, 2001), in an ableist environment (Jammaers & Williams, 2023), at the risk of being essentialized, reducing their group identity to their impairments (Granata & Lane, 2024).

In this context, there is a paucity of research on the intricacies of entrepreneurship with disabilities (Santos et al., 2024). There are several opportunities to address such void.

First, studies concentrate on self-employment as an alternative to unemployment for PwDs, barriers faced by EwDs, and the importance of education. Therefore, many avenues for future research have been identified (Billion et al., 2024): individuals’ actions and their outcomes by blending cognitive, behavioral and environmental perspectives (Tucker et al., 2021); social, temporal and spatial contextualization of EwD’s start-up processes (Renko et al., 2016); the role of caregivers (Balcazar et al., 2023); questions on ties with the protected sector, often considered a segregationist space (Hein & Ansari, 2022). For many EwDs, embarking on the entrepreneurial process may involve family members and peer support, creating a unique entrepreneurial experience (Al-Dajani et al. 2024).

Second, studying EwDs individually and through the collectives they form, understanding their motivations (Demartino & al., 2023), processes and challenges (Ruffin & al., 2007; Caldwell & al., 2020), the way in which they build competencies, manage to convince stakeholders and build informal support networks (Van Niekerk & al., 2006; Lorenzo & al., 2007), how they navigate entrepreneurial ecosystems, adopt technologies, unite and ultimately change the rules of the game beyond their stigma and constraints, seem of primary importance in adapting entrepreneurship education, support and ecosystems. Recent advances in our understanding of entrepreneurship as a practice could shed some light into the “how” this is done by EwDs (Champenois et al. 2020).

Third, enabling access to the entrepreneurial journey to a wide range of non-mainstream profiles, including PwDs, might be a key driver to raising awareness, equity, change and empowerment through entrepreneurship (Blackburn et al., 2018; Bhardwaj et al., 2023), as no individual should be left behind. The surge in research on entrepreneurial health and wellbeing (Stephan & Roesler, 2010; Patzelt & Shepherd, 2011; Le Moal et al., 2024) demonstrates the need for more systematic knowledge building about the positive and negative aspects of this vocation for individuals (Miller et al., 2020; Stephan et al., 2022). More insights are also expected with regard to how the risky, precarious, and time-intensive nature of entrepreneurship may cause a range of temporary health impediments, like insomnia and fatigue (Kollmann et al., 2019; Gunia et al., 2021) or depression and suicidal thoughts (Cubbon et al., 2021) to an already health-challenged group of people. Besides, we suggest researching under which conditions entrepreneurship might be a means to increase satisfaction (Barbara-Sanchez et al., 2024), well-being (Renko et al., 2024), self-confidence (Martin & Honig, 2020), autonomy (Ortiz Garcia & Olaz Capitan, 2021) and empowerment (Hidegh et al., 2022; Bhardwaj et al., 2023) of PwDs.

Fourth, few studies have taken a critical perspective on entrepreneurship of persons with disabilities (yet see Tihic et al., 2021; Klangboonkrong & Baines, 2022; Jammaers & Williams, 2023): scholars and policymakers alike too often consider entrepreneurship as a silver bullet to tackle economic and social issues, while EwDs should have the right to a freely chosen work (Art. 27-1, UN CRPD). Self-employment should be one potential choice in a wider labour market that welcomes people deemed different, rather than “a last resort” (Pagan, 2012: 83). Overall, paradoxes, unintended consequences and the dark side of entrepreneurship for PwDs should be considered. For instance, Mauksch and Dey (2024) in their study of a social enterprise which sought to challenge deficit-oriented ideas, concluded the hiring of a blind employee ended up producing disability as a distinct social reality, in this case treating blind people as profoundly “other”.

Fifth, the role of public policies and institutions (Parker Harris et al., 20214; Shaheen, 2016; Tiasakul et al., 2024) should be challenged: EwDs lack tailored guidance, information, support and funding to set up a venture (Holland et al., 2025). Public policies have not yet unfolded the conducive entrepreneurial environment required by PwDs’ diverse profiles in terms of accessibility (Balcazar et al., 2023), inclusive legislation and society’s perception (Yousafzai et al., 2022).

Sixth, advances in research methodologies open the door to employing innovative, creative qualitative and mixed methods (Ormiston & Thompson, 2021; Vershinina & Cruz, 2021; Hlady-Rispal et al., 2024) to capture the complexity of entrepreneurship by PwDs, meanwhile ensuring scientific rigor. Indeed, adequate research methods need to be developed to tackle these sensitive issues, not only “about” PwDs as research “subjects”, but also “with” PwDs and their relatives (Beudaert & Nau, 2023), including participatory and action research. Quantitative studies (Schwab & Zhang, 2019) also create opportunities to advance empirical EwDs’ theory and practice.

Finally, disability, as a time and space-dependent social construction, may be treated differently around the world, including in terms of social perceptions and support entrepreneurs receive from the states (OECD, 2014, 2021, 2023). Empirical evidence on disabled entrepreneurs can be found in the African (Viriri & Makurumidze, 2014; Labie et al., 2015; Maziriri et al., 2017), Asian (Saxena & Pandya, 2018; Hsieh et al., 2019), and European continents (Pagán-Rodríguez, 2012; Maalaoui et al., 2020; Nordstedt & Germundsson, 2023). Still, cross-national comparative research is missing. Composing large qualitative datasets across borders, or revisiting existing ones with new research questions (Köhler et al., 2025), could contribute valuable insights to entrepreneurship research, policy, and practice. Evidence from cross-country studies often shows that ‘things could be otherwise, challenging our assumptions about the rationality and inevitability of our own taken-for-granted systems and behaviors’ (Chapple & Ziebland, 2018: 797). Such comparison could draw a more nuanced framework to encompass the various experiences of EwDs around the world (Dhar & Farzana, 2017; Csillag et al., 2019; Yousafzai et al., 2022).

Disability is a contemporary social, ethical, philosophical, and political phenomenon concerning varying populations worldwide, and therefore, its study in the context of entrepreneurship merits further attention. Research on EwDs has the potential to provide novel answers to important questions in entrepreneurship and society in general. Through this scholarly endeavor, we aspire to foster a deeper understanding of the dynamic interrelations between EwDs and the broader socio-economic world, thereby advancing the field of entrepreneurship studies for academics, practitioners, and policymakers.

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