Entrepreneurial accessibility, eudaimonic well-being, and inequality

Amidst considerable debate on the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic inequality, scholarship only indirectly addresses how entrepreneurship informs individuals' relative well-being. We theorize on the nuanced relationship between entrepreneurship and equality of eudaimonic well-being through the lens of New Institutional Economics. Drawing on theories of human flourishing, we suggest that entrepreneurial action is an underappreciated mechanism by which individuals pursue well-being. Equality of well-being is thus influenced by a society's entrepreneurial accessibility: the freedom of individuals to choose to engage in entrepreneurial action. We present a multilevel framework in which institutional factors enable entrepreneurial action by promoting entrepreneurial accessibility-a factor, that, in turn, affects well-being for individual entrepreneurs as well as societal eudaimonic equality. The ex ante conditions for equality of well-being entail institutions that yield broad entrepreneurial accessibility. Our work highlights the institutional prerequisites for human flourishing in the entrepreneurial society beyond (unequal) economic distributions. Plain English Summary So much attention is given to entrepreneurship's relation to income inequality that the more fundamental issue of well-being is often overlooked. Where many look to the relative equality of incomes as a societal benchmark, we call for a focus on equality in the opportunity to pursue well-being. We further suggest that engaging in entrepreneurship is a vital means of this pursuit. In turn, the freedom to pursue entrepreneurship regardless of social status or background becomes a central factor in the relative well-being of members of society-even for those who do not choose entrepreneurship. Thus, the major implication of this study is that rather than seeking to equalize outcomes, policy should be designed to promote the freedom for individuals to flourish-especially through entrepreneurial action.