The White privilege of self-determination in entrepreneurship: how educational supports pipeline White students into business ownership

Worker cooperative entrepreneur spaces are predominantly White despite these companies building the foundation of their business model on equity and sustainability. While some studies have investigated racism in entrepreneurship development, no in-depth study has investigated White privilege in this space. Therefore, this study used a qualitative critical narrative analysis approach to explore White privilege in the entrepreneurship journeys of six White individuals who formed a worker cooperative business. Findings suggest that formal and informal educational experiences fostered four themes of White privilege in entrepreneurship: belongingness and competence in privileged entrepreneurship identity, resource-rich support systems, anti-meritocracy perceptions of competence, and privileged psychology of wealth. Findings suggest that educational spaces foster basic psychological needs of intrinsic motivation required for entrepreneurship, however, racialized gatekept access to these spaces perpetuates racial disproportionality in entrepreneurship. This article concludes with situating findings within self-determination theory and discussions of study limitations, implications, and future directions.