Journal of Entrepreneurship Research

Journal of Entrepreneurship Research

Entrepreneurship as an Unbridled Wheel: A Critical Reflection on the Linear and Rhizomatic Implications of Entrepreneurial Experiences

Document Type : Research Article

Author
Ali Ayar
Department of Social Sciences Education, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/jer.2025.2075316.1361
Abstract
Introduction: Entrepreneurial studies, largely shaped by neoliberal economic discourse, have predominantly adopted a linear analytical lens, focusing on the material and instrumental outcomes of entrepreneurship. Challenging this orthodox view, the present article draws upon critical sociology to advance the foundational premise that entrepreneurship is inherently a transformative and heterogenetic phenomenon, carrying unintended consequences that differentially affect various social groups. To empirically examine this proposition, the study investigates the multifaceted consequences of entrepreneurial experience-specifically, the cooperative water-pumping stations in Dareh Shahr County, Ilam Province, Iran.
Methodology: This evaluation research adapts and repurposes the POSTEL framework to systematically assess the consequences of the aforementioned entrepreneurial initiative for its surrounding environment. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with 22 participants, comprising both key informants and stakeholders, and continued until theoretical saturation was achieved.
Findings: Contrary to the conventional linear narrative that reduces entrepreneurial outcomes to profitability and employment generation, the findings reveal a complex constellation of both positive and negative repercussions spanning political, economic, social, environmental, technological, and legal domains. On the positive side, the entrepreneurial experience contributed to income generation, the emergence of ancillary and processing industries, reinforcement of social cohesion, population retention, cultivation of a work ethic, expansion of cultural and artistic activities, mitigation of political dissatisfaction, enhancement of stakeholders' technical competencies, smartification of water resource management, and the financial innovation of defining land as bank collateral for cooperative members, alongside a reduction in environmental pollution. However, a decade of insufficient oversight and governance has simultaneously precipitated adverse outcomes, including growing social inequality, monopolization of water resources, wastage of virtual water, and progressive soil salinization.
Conclusion/Implications: By cultivating analytical sensitivity toward the heterogeneous consequences of entrepreneurship, this article demonstrates that entrepreneurial activity is best understood through a rhizomatic lens-capable of producing simultaneous and often contradictory effects on its milieu, ranging from solidarity, demographic stability, and welfare enhancement, to inequality, exploitation, and ecological degradation. In this light, entrepreneurial actions should be conceived not as terminal endpoints, but as multiple, unpredictable, and indeterminate points of departure. The intent here is not to denigrate entrepreneurship, but to advocate for a critical engagement with it-one that envisions a more humane and more equitable entrepreneurial praxis. This entails forging conceptual and practical linkages between entrepreneurship policy, emancipatory politics (to redress inequalities), and life politics (to expand capabilities for a flourishing life for all). Ultimately, the article poses a foundational ethical question: How can entrepreneurship be reconstituted as a thoroughly ethical practice?
Keywords
Entrepreneurship
Critical Sociology
Entrepreneurial Consequences
Critical Entrepreneurship Studies
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 20 October 2025
  • Revise Date 24 December 2025
  • Accept Date 25 December 2025