Is there empowerment in entrepreneurship? A systematic literature review

The paper undertakes a systematic review of the literature on empowerment in entrepreneurship research. The overall purpose of the paper is to create a better understanding of what empowerment is and what constitutes it. The literature review reveals that there is lack of clear definition even though it is widely used concept. Many development initiatives aim to “empower” poor people by offering them means to become entrepreneurs. Yet, there is no coherent understanding of what really empowers the people and what the role of entrepreneurship is in the process. Hence, this paper aims to fill that gap by conceptualizing “entrepreneurial empowerment” in order to clarify the connections between empowerment and entrepreneurial activity. The study builds on the empowerment discussion in the ‘entrepreneurship under poverty conditions’ literature. Findings suggest that contradictory to development organizations’ thinking empowerment cannot be bestowed by a third party. It is a process that starts from people becoming aware of their own interests and capabilities. Furthermore, empowerment alone does not guarantee poverty relief. Thus, entrepreneurial activity should strive to rise above subsistence level. Hence, this research contributes to the scarce literature on entrepreneurship in poverty and development aid discussion. Moreover, the research has implications for policy makers and development aid actors providing suggestions on how to support entrepreneurial activity of the impoverished people and more effective and meaningful way of designing development programs. The paper is structured as follows; First part presents the background of the study and general ideas about empowerment. The second section argues the selection of the method and explains the process how the systematic literature review was conducted in this study. Furthermore the emerged themes are identified. Third part discusses the empowerment in entrepreneurship literature. Finally some concluding thoughts are presented.