Journal of Business Venturing Insights 19 (2023) e00386

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Journal of Business Venturing Insights

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbvi

Creating economic, social, and environmental change through

entrepreneurship: An entrepreneurial autonomy perspective
informed by Paulo Freire
Ana Cristina O. Siqueira a, *, Benson Honig b, Sandra Mariano c, Joysi Moraes c,
Robson Moreira Cunha c
a William Paterson University, Cotsakos College of Business, 1600 Valley Road, Wayne, NJ, 07470, United States
b McMaster University, DeGroote School of Business, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S4M4, Canada
c Department of Entrepreneurship and Management, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rua Mario Santos Braga, S/N ‑ 7o. Andar ‑ Centro, Niteroi, RJ

24020‑140, Brazil

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: We extend to the context of entrepreneurship Paulo Freire's concepts including “limit-situation”
Social responsibility representing constraints to be surpassed, such as inequalities or crises, “untested feasibility” rep-
Environmental sustainability resenting a new vision based on awareness that a given reality can be altered, and “limit-acts”
Women entrepreneurs representing actions to change reality. In our abductive analysis, we focus on Brazilian women
Paulo freire
technology entrepreneurs as individuals transcending barriers such as gender inequality. Our en-
Entrepreneurial autonomy
trepreneurial autonomy perspective represents a process in which individuals (1) identify eco-
Sustainable development
nomic, social, and/or environmental issues that they can improve via entrepreneurship, (2) de-
velop a new vision that articulates better economic, social, and/or environmental conditions, and
(3) take actions to enhance these conditions and benefit diverse stakeholders by creating a non-
profit or for-profit enterprise. We provide future directions for the integration of Freire's concepts
and the entrepreneurial autonomy perspective in research, and offer our entrepreneurial auton-
omy worksheet for educators to empower individuals to develop ideas of socially responsible new
ventures that create value for diverse stakeholders.

1. Introduction
In this study, we focus on extending the Brazilian intellectual Paulo Freire's (Freire 1970) theorizing on individual emancipation
to the context of entrepreneurship, emphasizing social responsibility. Scholars have highlighted the relevance of Freire's perspective
regarding the notion of individuals' quest for economic and social transformation (Bartunek and Gordon, 1983; Willmott 1993).
Freire's landmark book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” was published in New York in 1970, and by 1974 it was translated into several
languages and distributed in different continents (Freire and Macedo 1998), now cited over 100,000 times. Notably, past research has
highlighted the relevance of Freire's (1970) perspective on pursuing autonomy and rethinking constraints (Willmott 1993), but
Freire's work has only occasionally been examined in the field of management and entrepreneurship (Bartunek and Gordon, 1983;
Berglund and Johansson 2007; Birdthistle et al. 2022).

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: siqueiraa@wpunj.edu (A.C.O. Siqueira), bhonig@mcmaster.ca (B. Honig), sandramariano@id.uff.br (S. Mariano), jmoraes@id.uff.br (J. Moraes),
robsoncunha@id.uff.br (R.M. Cunha).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2023.e00386
Received 4 November 2022; Received in revised form 13 March 2023; Accepted 15 March 2023
Available online 23 March 2023
2352-6734/Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
nd/4.0/).
A.C.O. Siqueira et al. Journal of Business Venturing Insights 19 (2023) e00386

We examine how individuals can create initiatives to improve economic, social, and environmental conditions by launching for-
profit or nonprofit new ventures. Many entrepreneurs see themselves on a mission to create value not only for themselves and their
shareholders, but also for a more inclusive community of stakeholders (Dees 2001), and are often labeled “social entrepreneurs.” So-
cial entrepreneurs are committed to the management of existing organizations or the creation of new ventures to enhance civic
wealth (Lumpkin and Bacq 2019) by addressing not only value capture for the entrepreneur but also value creation for society (Santos
2012).
A fundamental emphasis of entrepreneurship on “making money” has been shifted to “making change” by the emancipatory per-
spective (Rindova et al. 2009). The theme of “making change” overlaps significantly with the work of the social theorist Paulo Freire.
Freire's perspective is vital to guide entrepreneurship aimed at creating environmental and socioeconomic change (Lange 2012).
Freire's principles of critical reflection can play a role in elevating marginalized communities by helping develop entrepreneurs who
become capable of challenging the status quo (Prieto et al. 2012). The consciousness-building functions of critical reflection has the
potential to facilitate the development of entrepreneurship to improve economic vitality (Berglund and Johansson 2007). The oppor-
tunity is to renegotiate power structures through dialogues that enable individuals to re-conceptualize their roles in regional develop-
ment and to unlock latent entrepreneurial potential. We focus on the following research questions: How do individuals exercise entre-
preneurial autonomy by transcending constraints and creating socially responsible change through their new ventures? How can
Freire's concepts inform the study of entrepreneurial autonomy?
Entrepreneurial autonomy represents a process in which individuals identify economic, social, and/or environmental issues that
they can improve via entrepreneurship, develop a new vision that articulates ideal economic, social, and/or environmental condi-
tions, and take actions to enhance economic, social, and/or environmental circumstances and benefit an inclusive array of stakehold-
ers by creating a nonprofit or for-profit enterprise. By engaging in critical reflection, individuals raise their awareness that reality is
historically constructed and elevate their consciousness about their ability to make change (Freire 1970). In this way, entrepreneurial
autonomy emerges from critical reflection and entails individuals’ perceived self-efficacy and internal locus of control as well as their
power to make socially responsible change through entrepreneurship.
We develop a theoretical contribution by extending to the entrepreneurship context Freire's social theory (1970). We highlight
Paulo Freire's concepts including “limit-situations” as obstacles to be transcended, “untested feasibility” as a new dream or vision
based on an awareness that a given reality can be transformed, and “limit-acts” as actions to build a new reality. We conduct an ab-
ductive analysis focusing on women who are founders and leaders of Brazilian technology new ventures and operate in an environ-
ment characterized by resource constraints and gender inequalities. This study contributes to the literature that highlights the need to
enrich and advance theorizing in entrepreneurship (Bacq and Lumpkin, 2014; Branzei et al., 2018; Bruton et al., 2022; Nason et al.,
2018; Newbert, 2018; Shepherd, 2015; Sutter et al., 2019). We do so by building on intellectual contributions from a recognized Latin
American theorist and thereby we increase diversity of views in the field of management and entrepreneurship with a perspective that
acknowledges the importance of critical reflection about existing conditions and awareness of individual autonomy to transform the
status quo.

1.1. Socially responsible new ventures and Freire's perspective

Autonomy entails a degree of independence from the control of another (Al-Dajani et al., 2015) and a capacity to be in charge of
one's decisions and actions (Jennings et al. 2016). Main characteristics of autonomy are self-governance and freedom (Crocker and
Wolfe 2001). Yet, autonomy does not refer to individualism and selfishness but rather to one's perceived internal locus of causality
and sense of self-determination (Ryan and Deci 2000). Indeed, people who have a strong autonomy orientation tend to self-regulate
their behavior and act accordingly to their own self-chosen values (Vansteenkiste et al. 2010). Moreover, autonomy often involves
challenging dominant power structures and socioeconomic conditions (Alkhaled and Berglund 2018).
For women, pursuing autonomy often means seeking to break away from perceived constraints or dominant practices that control
their entrepreneurial endeavors, such as a patriarchal culture (Sharma 2022). For example, the extent to which a woman perceives
autonomy depends on how she experiences social relations in her environment, which may be characterized by conditions such as pa-
ternalism (Christman 2014). Autonomy also refers to a degree of emancipation that permits individuals to choose a departure from an
exclusive focus on profit maximization and a balance between service to self and service to others (Chandra 2017). In this way, indi-
viduals exercise autonomy by enabling themselves and others to create socioeconomic change through acts of entrepreneurship
(Zayadin et al. 2022). In the next sections, we highlight the following Freire's concepts (Freire 1970), which inspired our entrepre-
neurial autonomy perspective: limit-situations, untested feasibility, and limit-acts.

1.2. Limit-situations
A “limit-situation” indicates the concrete barriers that individuals must transcend in order to overcome a particular situation, such
as poverty and contexts with social inequalities including misogyny and patriarchal culture. These barriers can be viewed as: (a) an
obstacle that cannot be transcended; (b) something that the individual does not want to overcome for believing it is his destiny; (c) an
obstacle that is possible to transcend through a particular action; or (d) a barrier that the individual does not even perceive as some-
thing that was historically built and in need of disruption (Freire, A. M. A., 2008; Freire, P. 1970; Pinto 1960). When limit-situations
are perceived as a barrier or an obstacle that can be transcended, they may be revealed as concrete and historical dimensions of a
given reality that challenge individuals (Freire 1970). In other words, limit-situations indicate the boundaries where all possibilities
can start: they are the frontier between the current status of an individual and what she can become.
Transcending the limit-situations only occurs through the action of people toward the concrete reality where the limit-situations
reside (Freire 1970). For example, nonprofit organizations that emerge based on grassroots initiatives by community members may

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indicate that these people perceived their situation as a limit-situation, a condition that can and needs to be surpassed through their
own actions. As an illustration, community members in a low-income neighborhood in Brazil organized a survey and reflection on the
theme “why we are poor,” which inspired their creation of a microfinance organization that helped them overcome their problems
through their own action (Monzoni et al., 2014).

1.3. Untested feasibility

An “untested feasibility” exists once people are aware that the given reality or limit-situation is simply an obstacle they can over-
come. Transcending these limitations depends on a prior perception that it is possible to transform that given reality (Freire, A. M. A.,
2008; Freire, P. 1970). In other words, there is a direct relationship between an individual's understanding of his/her situation and
the belief in a dream with the possibility of transforming the status quo through concrete actions. In this way, if one untested feasibil-
ity is successful, it then prompts the emergence of new untested feasibilities, such as gender equity.
For example, we can consider nonprofit organizations that support social entrepreneurship as a dream, through which women
community members believe they can change their reality through their own actions. Thus, the creation of nonprofit organizations
represents an untested feasibility and catalyst to foster additional untested feasibilities, such as new work groups, cooperatives, and
new businesses. Importantly, we note that not all nonprofit social organizations share this view; many simply reallocate resources
from environments that are more munificent to areas of scarcity. Others can contribute, sometimes unwittingly, to further gender ex-
ploitation and poverty (Economist 2019; Honig 2018).

1.4. Limit-acts
“Limit-acts” represent concrete actions upon a given reality, taken in order to put untested feasibilities into practice (Freire, A. M.
A., 2008; Freire, P. 1970). Limit-acts depend on a proactive attitude according to which individuals view the world as a place that
they can transform. Individuals are beings who transform and create relationship within their reality, producing not only material
goods and tangible objects, but also social institutions, ideas, and conceptions (Freire 1970). For example, women in certain commu-
nities may perceive that, through their own actions, they are able to take control of their own destiny to change and build a new real-
ity.
Freire's (1970) concepts highlighted in this study suggest that individuals' actions to change reality are conceived in relation to
specific social and economic conditions. Scarcity can be a structure imposed by those with more power over those with less (Honig
et al. 2014), which can influence an individuals' search for autonomy as they envision alternative realities that could be imple-
mented through entrepreneurship. Thus, we contribute to extend Freire's theory (Freire 1970) to the domain of entrepreneurship.

2. Methods
Brazil represents an important country for this study due to its persistent levels of socioeconomic inequalities. This country has
high income inequality where the top 1% representing the richest people accrued 25% of all incomes, on average, between 2006 and
2013 (Medeiros 2016). Moreover, Brazilian women in the labor force have higher levels of education but earn, on average, approxi-
mately three quarters of the earnings of men (IBGE 2018). One important constraint resulting in gender inequalities is access to tech-
nology entrepreneurship by women, given that women have limited representation in technology industries (Williams 2014), particu-
larly in developing economies such as Brazil (SOFTEX 2019). In Brazil, the rich are often white men (Medeiros 2016) and gender in-
equality is substantial (IBGE 2018). Women in leadership positions in Brazil tend to report that they have self-confidence in their abil-
ity to occupy their positions, but also report that they suffer gender biases in their careers (Hryniewicz and Vianna 2018).
As the selection criteria for our case study (Stake 2005), we focus on women founders who have been leading the startup and oper-
ation of their technology-focused new ventures in different geographical locations and diverse subsectors within the technology in-
dustry. We conducted the interviews virtually via video conferencing in the interviewees’ native language of Portuguese. The inter-
views typically lasted 1 h and were audio-recorded, transcribed, and translated into English. We interviewed thirteen women entre-
preneurs in 2020. Their enterprises develop and/or deploy technologies in sectors such as fashion, film, finance, health, motion detec-
tion, news media, nutrition, oceanography research, personal care, project management, and recycling.
We conducted a qualitative data analysis informed by an exploitative abductive approach (Bamberger 2018) shown in Table 1. In
the next sections, we describe our findings and provide representative quotes in the Appendix. Moreover, we show how this study
serves as a foundation for future researchers and educators to use these concepts in different contexts.

2.1. Findings
Freire's (Freire 1970) concepts bring insights into emancipatory processes in resource-constrained environments, as well as in en-
vironments with social inequalities such as gender disparities, by emphasizing that individuals reframing constraints as catalysts to
create a new vision and transform reality.

2.2. Limit-situations
All women technology entrepreneurs in our study had completed at least a Bachelor's degree, and many completed a Master's or
PhD degree. In the Brazilian context, basic education is positioned as one of the most unequal systems in the world, and higher educa-
tion is classified as one of the three most unequal in terms of percent of doctorates. Only 21% of Brazilians between 25 and 34 years
old have completed higher education, while the average of OECD countries is 44% (OECD 2019). Only 0.8% of Brazilians between 25
and 34 years old completed a Master's degree and only 0.2% completed a doctorate (OECD 2019). Thus, the women technology entre-

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Table 1
Application of exploitative abductive research method using Freire's concepts.

Freire's Concepts Examples of Interview Questions Themes in our Interview Data Analysis

Limit-situations • What were the major challenges you have encountered to create • Dealing with constraints to pursue entrepreneurial goals
your enterprise? • Handling gender inequalities to start and operate the business
• What have you learned from key obstacles to create your
enterprise?
Untested • How do you envision your organization and its impact to be in two • Designing a new vision of improved social and environmental
feasibility years? conditions
• How do you envision your organization and its impact to be in ten • Enabling social responsibility awareness through critical
years? reflection
Limit-acts • How do you design the goals of your enterprise? • Fostering collective socio-economic development through
• How do you obtain support to develop your organization? entrepreneurship
• Generating sustainable solutions and scalable social impact
Note: Our methodological approach involved the following activities, which we adapted from (Bamberger 2018). Phase 1: To explore our first research question on how
individuals exercise entrepreneurial autonomy by transcending constraints and creating socially responsible change through their new ventures, we used semi-
structured interviews while maintaining flexibility to explore spontaneous topics during the interviews. Phase 2: To explore our second research question on how
Freire's concepts can inform the study of entrepreneurial autonomy, based on an exploitative abduction approach, we compared the patterns in our qualitative data with
the following concepts: limit-situations, untested feasibilities, and limit-acts.

preneurs in our study are a minority who achieved breakthroughs by overcoming constraints to pursue their education, in addition to
being a minority in the technology field (Miric et al. 2022). Women in our sample did not provide statements consistent with the life
style of wealthy elites who have access to munificent economic resources to facilitate their education and business. Thus, we do not
have evidence that the women in our sample had access to economic resources in a privileged manner. For analytical purposes, our
study focuses on barriers in technology industries due to gender inequality. For example, one participant stated her perception that:
“Being a woman is different, right? … Because people do not believe that there we can make a technology, develop something
… I tried, as soon as I opened the company I went to present. But nobody wanted to buy … They took too long to trust, right?
That I was going to work, that I was going to make it.” (Woman technology entrepreneur #11)
Similarly, our respondents faced constraints including perceived gender and racial inequalities emerged in our data. For example,
one participant reported her perception that:
“I think if I were a male producer, with the résumé that I have, with the profile that I had, [a large global technology company]
would have looked at me. [This company] had taken my project and was being developed there, and maybe it wasn't so easily
discarded. You know? I think if I were a man with my resume, I would be in a much better place. That's it, if I were a white man
I would be at the top of society's food chain …” (Woman technology entrepreneur #8)
Based on our data, we found two main themes listed in Table 1, because our respondents expressed how they overcame many ob-
stacles to pursue their career projects, and stated their perceived greater hurdles due to gender biases. We interpreted these data pat-
terns as congruent with the concept of “limit-situations” because they represent constraints that serve as catalysts for entrepreneurial
action and social transformation. Aligned with the notion of limit-situations, individuals search for autonomy by reimagining con-
straints as a leverage to form a new vision and transform reality.

2.3. Untested feasibility

In our data, women entrepreneurs reported interest in generating positive social impact. For example, guided by a strong will to
help people, one participated reflect on the development of a concept for her organization to facilitate the creation of a better reality:
“I have a lot like that, a will to help people, I’ve always liked it, I think it matched my interest that I had before, of studying
about this subject of helping people with this project, got it?” (Woman technology entrepreneur #5)
Our participants stated that they articulated a dream to improve reality as an interest not only in the present, but also in the future.
As one participant expressed:
“And 10 years from now I think, I find myself dedicating myself exclusively to social causes. … all this knowledge that I have,
that I can help people, companies, entities. And then I am going to make some kind of knowledge donation and even because I
am suddenly going to engage in some specific front, use that energy there to make a difference in the social aspect.” (Woman
technology entrepreneur #4)
We identified two themes displayed in Table 1 because our respondents expressed how they envisioned solutions for economic, so-
cial, and environmental conditions in their respective industries, and implied a great deal of critical reflection based on their social re-
lations. We interpreted these themes as aligned with the concept of “untested feasibility” because the pattern that emerged from the
data is that participants were able to overcome constraints while using critical reflection to enhance awareness of their power to de-
sign a new ideal of enhanced economic, social, and environmental conditions.

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2.4. Limit-acts
We observed in our data the view of success expressed as creating significant positive social impact by engaging beneficiaries and
stakeholders, as one participant explained:
“So success is to see that I managed to take it intuitively, unconsciously, and that’s why we’re using the app … We generate op-
portunity, we generate opportunity for change, it is transformation. So my success, is that I can, that is, 1000, 2000, 1 million,
open an opportunity for them to generate sustainable income. (Woman technology entrepreneur #12)
Moreover, women entrepreneurs in our data stated that they believe they are capable of generating social impact by educating and
inspiring others, at the local community and also scalable to the entire region. As one participant explained:
“So, the social arm, in addition to education and mobilization, we bring this knowledge and especially bring the school as a ref-
erence for the community. We have this issue of teaching how to do it with the soap, right? I think it is also a positive impact,
because the boy grows, the community, this reverts positively to the whole city, in fact, right?” (Woman technology entrepre-
neur #13)
Based on our interviews, we identified two themes shown in Table 1 because the participants alluded to the idea of helping others
achieve sustainable outcomes as part of their enterprise, and reported their strong interest and commitment to creating sustainable
enterprises in a way that can benefit many other individuals and communities. We interpreted these themes as congruent with the
concept of “limit-acts” because they reflect how individuals create organizations by engaging diverse stakeholders in pursuit of
change, such as by supporting sustainable development.

3. Discussion
We highlight Freire's concepts for entrepreneurship audiences with the goal of increasing visibility to this distinguished Latin
American scholar, and thereby broaden the diversity of voices on entrepreneurial autonomy in the entrepreneurship literature. In the
next sections, we highlight implications of our study for theory and practice.

3.1. Implications for theory

We contribute to uncovering the relevance of Freire's theory for the study of entrepreneurship, community transformation, and so-
cial inclusion, as summarized in Table 2. We build on Freire's (1970) concepts of “limit-situation,” “untested feasibility,” and “limit-
acts.” Our entrepreneurial autonomy perspective complements the notion in the emancipatory literature (Rindova et al. 2009) that in-
dividuals seek to escape from or remove constraints by emphasizing that constraints can serve as catalysts for entrepreneurial action.
Drawing on Freire's concepts, we develop our entrepreneurial autonomy perspective emphasizing that people transcend con-
straints by developing a vision to change the status quo. Subsequently, individuals implement concrete actions to transform the world
by launching for-profit or nonprofit new ventures. Our interviews illustrate individuals' experiences in the entrepreneurial autonomy

Table 2
Research application of Freire's concepts and the entrepreneurial autonomy perspective for studying entrepreneurship.

Freire's Main Features of Freire's Concepts Entrepreneurial Autonomy Perspective

Concepts

Limit- • Concrete barriers that have to be surpassed by the
situations individual in order to overcome a particular situation
• Historical dimensions of a given reality that challenge
individuals
• Boundaries where all possibilities can start frontier between
the current status of an individual and what he/she can
become
Untested • New vision based on awareness that a given reality or limit-
feasibility situation is simply an obstacle that can be surpassed
• Based on a prior perception that it is possible to transform a
given reality
• Based on the belief in a dream with the possibility of
transforming the status quo through concrete actions
• If one untested feasibility is successful, it then prompts the
emergence of new untested feasibilities
Limit-acts • Concrete actions upon a given reality, taken in order to put
untested feasibilities into practice
• Based on a proactive attitude that views the world as a
place that can be transformed
• Based on the perception that individuals are beings who
transform and create in relationship with their reality,
producing not only material goods and tangible objects, but
also social institutions, ideas, and conceptions
• Actions through which individuals are able to take control
of their own destiny to change and build a new reality
• Individuals transcend constraints by using them as catalysts for
entrepreneurial action and social transformation
• Individuals search for autonomy by reframing constraints as a leverage to
form a vision and transform reality
• Individuals articulate and design a new vision based on awareness that a
given reality can be transformed to guide the launching of their profit or
nonprofit new entrepreneurial ventures
• Individuals use critical reflection to enhance awareness of their power to
design a new ideal of enhanced economic, social, and environmental
conditions
• Individuals engage stakeholders to create and manage transformations
(such as actions towards equality, inclusion, environmental responsibility,
innovation in response to business environment transformation, and social
change) by launching new entrepreneurial ventures
• Individuals create economic, social, and environmental change and positive
impact, such as by supporting sustainable development via
entrepreneurship

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Table 3
Entrepreneurial autonomy worksheet: Teaching application of Freire's concepts for generating ideas of new ventures or new business development in an existing or-
ganization.

Freire's Entrepreneurial Autonomy Generating Ideas of Socially Responsible New Ventures

Concepts

Limit- • Identify economic, social, and/or environmental
situations issues that can be improved via entrepreneurship
Untested • Develop a new vision that articulates ideal
feasibility economic, social, and/or environmental
conditions enabled by entrepreneurship
Limit-acts • Take actions to enhance economic, social, and/or
environmental circumstances and benefit an
inclusive array of stakeholders by creating a
nonprofit or for-profit enterprise
Note: This example illustrates how an entrepreneur can apply the worksheet to generate ideas of a new organization providing an online platform connecting nutritious
food stakeholders.
Limit-situations (economic, social, and/or environmental issues):
• Difficulty for consumers to connect with prepared meal providers and producers of
nutritious foods
• Gender biases against women entrepreneurs as a minority in technology industries
Untested feasibility (new vision of improved economic, social, and/or environmental
conditions):
• Consumers, service providers, and suppliers of nutritious foods will be able to
connect with each other, while forming a community of stakeholders who raise
awareness about sustainable food production, local micro-economies, and inclusive
access to nutritious foods, and a solution will be possible independent of the
entrepreneur's gender
Limit-acts (actions to enhance economic, social, and/or environmental conditions and
benefit diverse stakeholders):
• Build a website and mobile app that allow consumers to connect with prepared
meal providers and producers of nutritious foods, and to become members of a
community of stakeholders, by creating a new organization led by gender-inclusive
teams
• Develop technology solutions as part of the new organization to facilitate
scalability by fostering decentralized micro-economies in the food industry, while
promoting sustainable development and social impact via inclusive access to
nutritious foods

process. As summarized in Tables 1 and 2, this study provides a foundation for scholars to incorporate Freire's concepts and the entre-
preneurial autonomy perspective in future research.

3.2. Implications for practice

Our study generates important implications for the teaching and training of entrepreneurs to improve their economic conditions
and contribute to their communities in an environmentally sustainable manner. Table 3 displays our entrepreneurial autonomy work-
sheet, which individuals can use to apply Freire's concepts and entrepreneurial autonomy to develop ideas of new socially responsible
businesses. For this example, we illustrate how an entrepreneur can complete the worksheet to generate ideas of a new business pro-
viding an online platform linking nutritious food stakeholders inspired by one enterprise in our sample.
The entrepreneurial autonomy process starts by identifying “limit-situations,” which in our example entail difficulty for con-
sumers to connect with providers of nutritious foods and barriers for women to start a technology venture. The next step in the
process is to formulate an “untested feasibility,” illustrated as a vision that consumers will be able to connect with nutritious food
providers and that a solution will be possible independent of the entrepreneur's gender. The final step is to define “limit-acts,” exem-
plified as building a website and mobile app that allow consumers to connect with nutritious food providers by creating a new organi-
zation led by gender-inclusive teams. The entrepreneurial autonomy worksheet in Table 3 illustrates how educators can use Freire's
concepts and entrepreneurial autonomy during classes for students to contextualize the framework to their personal aspirations and
community circumstances, generate new ideas, and create new ventures to improve economic, social, and environmental conditions.
For the teaching application, there are two important underlying aspects: (1) teachers' recognition of students' power, and (2) con-
textualization to students' communities. First, when educators use the entrepreneurial autonomy worksheet in Table 3 during a teach-
ing session, the focus is on an approach utilizing Freire's perspective that a more humane world will be the result of actions among in-
dividuals in collaboration with one another, and not via power imposition or top-bottom assistance from some individuals to others.
This viewpoint is aligned with Freire's concept of “communion” (Freire 1970), according to which human development is best accom-
plished by preventing dependency while stimulating empowerment (Medeiros 2008: 270; Romao, 2008: 151). The goal is to prevent a
superior attitude by educators towards learners (assistencialismo educacional (Freire Paulo, 2014)) and encourage educators' apprecia-
tion for students' contexts and power, while avoiding an excess of power by particular agents and supporting ‘win-win’ strategies that
are inclusive of diverse stakeholders and foster sustainable development through entrepreneurship.
Second, when educators apply the entrepreneurial autonomy worksheet in Table 3 to train participants, an important approach is
to enable students to contextualize the content to their communities. The term “communion” expresses the notion of action as a com-
munity. Consequently, this idea connects to Freire's (Freire 1970) viewpoint that individuals do not liberate themselves individually
but in communion with others. The goal is to avoid individualism and inspire a better reality through fellowship and solidarity (Freire
1970). Thus, the entrepreneurial autonomy worksheet can serve as a tool for educators to empower students pursuing sustainable en-
trepreneurship to create benefits for diverse stakeholders.

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4. Conclusion
We extend Freire's concepts (Freire 1970) of limit-situations as constraints to be transcended, untested feasibility as a new vision
based on awareness that a given reality can be changed, and limit-acts as actions that transform reality to the entrepreneurship do-
main. Based on critical reflection about the status quo, individuals recognize that an alternative reality is both possible and prefer-
able. Our entrepreneurial autonomy perspective emphasizes individuals' capacity to transcend obstacles, envision a new ideal of an
improved reality, and take action to create better economic, social, and environmental conditions via entrepreneurship.

Credit author statement

Ana Siqueira: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal Analysis, Writing - Original Draft Preparation, Writing -
Review & Editing. Benson Honig: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing - Review & Editing, Funding Acquisition. Sandra Mari-
ano: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing. Joysi Moraes: Conceptualization, Methodology,
Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing. Robson Cunha: Methodology, Investigation.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.

Data availability
The data that has been used is confidential.

Acknowledgements
Benson Honig has received a McMaster COVID-19 Research Fund Grant from McMaster University.

Appendix
Representative quotes related to Freire's concepts and the entrepreneurial autonomy perspective.

Representative quotes Freire's Entrepreneurial Autonomy Perspective

Concepts

“There is the lesson of entrepreneurship, right? Well, OK, I can sit here and cry over all my lost money, or Limit- • Individuals overcome constraints by
I can take the entire lesson I learned here … And the lesson I learned: let's implement it.” (Woman situations using them as a leverage to form a
technology entrepreneur #4) vision and transform reality
“My empowerment is to believe in my idea, to have the courage to “wow, shake off the dust, I'll go
after it” (Woman technology entrepreneur #4)
“Being a woman is different, right? … Because people do not believe that there we can make a
technology, develop something … I tried, as soon as I opened the company I went to present. But
nobody wanted to buy … They took too long to trust, right? That I was going to work, that I was going
to make it.” (Woman technology entrepreneur #11)
“I think if I were a male producer, with the résumé that I have, with the profile that I had, [a large
global technology company] would have looked at me. [This company] had taken my project and was
being developed there, and maybe it wasn't so easily discarded. You know? I think if I were a man with
my resume, I would be in a much better place. That's it, if I were a white man I would be at the top of
society's food chain …” (Woman technology entrepreneur #8)
“What I realized recently is that I have this work specifically with this project, of pivoting, of wanting to Untested • Individuals design a new vision that
find new ways … I remembered that my grandparents were farmers … I think it strengthened my feasibility articulates improved economic,
resolve. It is what is at the base of my strength. …” (Woman technology entrepreneur #10) social, and/or environmental
“I do feel myself empowered, …it's a question of real priorities, of a life project” (Woman technology conditions
entrepreneur #8)
“I have a lot like that, a will to help people, I've always liked it, I think it matched my interest that I
had before, of studying about this subject of helping people with this project, got it?” (Woman
technology entrepreneur #5)
“And 10 years from now I think, I find myself dedicating myself exclusively to social causes. … all this
knowledge that I have, that I can help people, companies, entities. And then I am going to make some
kind of knowledge donation and even because I am suddenly going to engage in some specific front,
use that energy there to make a difference in the social aspect.” (Woman technology entrepreneur #4)
(continued on next page)

7
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Representative quotes Freire's Entrepreneurial Autonomy Perspective

Concepts

“I said “Dad, this company is going to go down in history!" … I said " … this is going to be for my Limit-acts • Individuals create change and
grandchildren, and I'm going to build one … " (Woman technology entrepreneur #11) mobilize stakeholders, such as by
“I have a dream, I want to do something, why am I going to face it all alone? … I said this because I supporting sustainable development
want to do something very big. And that always filled me up, you know? Of life and strength … So, for via entrepreneurship
me, [my company] is not just another brand or more in the store, we have a purpose that is very
strong, and it doesn't come from today, it comes from time, decades ago already.” (Woman technology
entrepreneur #2)
“So success is to see that I managed to take it intuitively, unconsciously, and that's why we're using the
app … We generate opportunity, we generate opportunity for change, it is transformation. So my
success, is that I can, that is, 1000, 2000, 1 million, open an opportunity for them to generate
sustainable income. (Woman technology entrepreneur #12)
“So, the social arm, in addition to education and mobilization, we bring this knowledge and especially
bring the school as a reference for the community. We have this issue of teaching how to do it with the
soap, right? I think it is also a positive impact, because the boy grows, the community, this reverts
positively to the whole city, in fact, right?” (Woman technology entrepreneur #13)

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