Entrepreneurship has been suggested as a means for producing emancipation for marginalized individuals. However, these claims have been debated within the literature, raising concerns over whether entrepreneurship facilitates emancipation. In this review, we examine entrepreneurship as emancipation literature through a structuration lens to critically evaluate both the enabling and constraining environmental factors such entrepreneurs face. Through this review we: 1) examine whether emancipation occurs through entrepreneurship, 2) consider the contextual impacts of structures on entrepreneurs’ ability to find emancipation, and 3) propose that codependence of individuals and structures is a barrier to emancipation for marginalized individuals. We argue that research studying emancipation motives for entrepreneurship should consider environmental and agentic factors.
