Institutional work in Czech and US business assistance programmes and implications for entrepreneurial inclusion

We use the institutional work approach to examine how business assistance programme (BAP) workers approach male-centric business contexts. Analyzing interviews in the Czech Republic, a transitional economy, and in the United States, an advanced market economy, we ask: does the institutional work of BAP staff and business experts foster increased entrepreneurial inclusivity or the reinforcement of male-centric business models? Although some BAPs took a business-as-usual approach and saw no need to tailor their services to women or other transitional entrepreneurs, others developed more inclusive assistance models including intersectional understandings and strategies to challenge barriers to entrepreneurship and economic well-being. Policy implications include: provision of more stable support for BAP programming that addresses the diversity of entrepreneur needs including low- as well as high-growth businesses, startups and ongoing businesses; assessment of family and entrepreneurship policy effects on women and other transitional entrepreneurs. Lessons can be learned from some temporary Covid-19 pandemic measures.