Rethinking Failures in Entrepreneurship Initiatives for Marginalised Communities

The promotion of entrepreneurship is increasingly seen as a solution to challenges faced by marginalised communities, particularly in emerging contexts where other employment alternatives are scarce. Development organisations implement time-limited programmes in these settings to convey entrepreneurial models and practices. Despite their growing prevalence, these programmes frequently achieve limited success. While structural barriers have been identified as contributing factors, I argue that inadequate attention is given to how implementors understand poor outcomes and how these interpretations influence programme (re)design. I conducted four months of research in the Peruvian Amazon—commonly referred to as a "cemetery of projects"—focusing on nine initiatives aimed at promoting entrepreneurship among the Awajun people, one of Peru’s largest Indigenous communities. Using a grounded theory approach and critical discourse analysis, I examined the discourses of staff regarding initiatives outcomes. I found that while implementors broadly acknowledged the failure of their programmes, they justified these shortcomings through three main discourses: framing failures as an inevitable part of processes of radical transformations; reinterpreting small successes as the diffusion of entrepreneurial innovation; and attributing failure to a lack of local entrepreneurial spirit. This research highlights how a neoliberal vision of entrepreneurship, emphasising hyperagency and high growth, is imposed on communities lacking institutional conditions and willingness to adopt such models. I argue the discourse of programme implementors contributes to failure by preventing culturally aligned support for marginalised entrepreneurs, perpetuating unrealistic expectations of success while ignoring failure.