An Intersectional Perspective of Entrepreneurial Growth Aspirations: Gendering Process of Transnational Women Entrepreneurs in a Superdiverse Context

Entrepreneurship is a gendered discourse that disadvantages women, with a growing trend among recent studies attending to entrepreneurial growth aspirations from the perspective of gender. Meanwhile, intersectionality theory provides a multi-layered inter-relational analysis on the effect of race, gender and migration status in the social constructions of migrant women entrepreneurs. Hence intersectionality theory is particularly relevant in examinations of women entrepreneurs’ gendering process. Notably, Birmingham as the second largest metropole in the UK is celebrated for its superdiverse metropolitan culture and the rich entrepreneurial tradition, with continued growth of international migration from a superdiverse range of countries and regions. In particular, transnational migrants from Hong Kong and mainland China are the two major Chinese diaspora groups in the city of Birmingham, which are under-researched with reference to entrepreneurial growth aspirations from a gender perspective. Therefore, the primary objective of this research is to comprehend, critique and deconstruct the capitalist patriarchy as experienced by Chinese women entrepreneurs from divergent migrant groups within the Chinese diaspora communities in Birmingham. Specifically, it has been witnessed by women entrepreneurs in family businesses from Hong Kong and women student entrepreneurs from mainland China. This research project employed a qualitative case study design to explore how Hong Kong and mainland Chinese women entrepreneurs interact with the Chinese diaspora communities to achieve entrepreneurial growth in a superdiverse and transnational city context of Birmingham. Taking into account the sampling strategy and data saturation, six individual cases, leading to six in-depth semi-structured interviews, were conducted for the fieldwork. This research found that the Chinese catering industry, as the main sector of Chinese diaspora entrepreneurship in the UK, demonstrated evident male dominance. Women entrepreneurs in family businesses from Hong Kong and women student entrepreneurs from mainland China have both experienced gendered bias in their entrepreneurial growth processes, with human capital playing a crucial role in the formation of their growth aspirations, as a reflection of entrepreneurial identity in a superdiverse, transnational gendering process. It is evident that the gendering process of women entrepreneurs from both Hong Kong and mainland China was developing entrepreneurial growth aspirations with them, in order to avoid the gender bias that is rife in the male-dominated traditional Chinese catering industry, albeit with divergent contextual conditions. In the future, further examinations will attend to the various discriminatory dynamics as intersecting forms of exclusions in relation to the superdiverse entrepreneurial context, with a focus on women entrepreneurs from the disadvantaged and marginalised as well as the advantaged and privileged social groups to explore the social, cultural and political potentials of migrant women entrepreneurs in general and Chinese migrant women entrepreneurs in particular.