How do Fab Labs enable the emergence of entrepreneurial intentions amongst disadvantaged youth ? The case of a solidarity Fab Lab in Lille, France

While the notion of smart cities remains contested (Albino, Berardi, & Dangelico, 2015), the use of information technologies as a transformative mechanism for urban renewal and sustainability seems to emerge as a central understanding of smart cities (Almirall et al., 2016). Research has started highlighting the promises of emerging urban sites that promote sharing practices (Niaros, Kostakis, & Drechsler, 2017). One such space of (social) innovation are Fabrication Labs. Fab Labs have recently emerged as spaces where individuals can experiment with professional machinery to develop their ideas. They are hailed as democratic spaces where like-minded people can meet, share knowledge and experience, and experiment. As such, they could provide a new institutional context for venture creation (Mortara & Parisot, 2016). While Fab Labs might be places where innovations and entrepreneurial ideas emerge and come to fruition, little research has been done on how these spaces might affect the entrepreneurial journey of its users. This paper is concerned with understanding how a Fab Lab might spark the entrepreneurial intentions amongst disadvantaged youth. While the vast literature on entrepreneurial intentions has highlighted the importance of context, most research has focussed on the macro-level by highlighting regional, cultural and institutional arrangements as determinants of entrepreneurial intentions (Liñán & Fayolle, 2015). Research at the micro-level has tended to focus on the cultural background of nascent entrepreneurs (Liñán & Fayolle, 2015). At the meso-level most attention has been dedicated at the role of educational institutions, and most notably universities (Díaz-Casero, Fernández-Portillo, Sánchez-Escobedo, & Hernández-Mogollón, 2017; Padilla-Angulo, 2019). To date, little research has been done on how third spaces, such as Fab Labs, might trigger entrepreneurial intentions. Therefore, drawing on the Gioia-methodology (Gioia, Corley, & Hamilton, 2013), we took a qualitative, grounded approach to understanding how the Fab Lab context might trigger entrepreneurial intentions. Our research setting is a solidarity Fab Lab located in a disadvantaged neighbourhood of Lille. At a theoretical level, our study contributes to a better understanding of the meso-level contextual factors that might contribute to triggering entrepreneurial intentions. Secondly, it sheds further light on the emergence of entrepreneurial intentions among disadvantaged populations. Third, it contributes to a better understanding of how the recent phenomenon of Fab Labs as spaces of social innovation might enable entrepreneurial intentions to emerge. At a practical level, our study may contribute to the further development of trainings within Fab Labs to stimulate entrepreneurship and the creation of new ventures.