New research spotlight: Tracing well-being in the lives of disabled entrepreneurs
A new research article titled “Beyond Survival: Tracing the Processual Arc of Well-Being among Disabled Entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan” has been published in the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research.
The paper examines how disabled entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan experience well-being not as a stable outcome, but as an ongoing and negotiated process shaped by structural exclusion, entrepreneurial practice, and care. Drawing on 31 in-depth interviews, the study introduces the concept of entrepreneurial well-being negotiation to capture how individuals continually balance empowerment and strain while operating in environments that remain systemically disabling.
Rather than presenting entrepreneurship as a simple pathway to independence, the findings trace a four-stage process. Systemic exclusion often acts as the catalyst for entrepreneurial entry. Over time, entrepreneurial practice reshapes identity and competence, while well-being emerges through the co-existence of pathogenic forces — such as burnout, isolation, and precarity — and salutogenic ones, including purpose, resilience, and meaning. Importantly, many entrepreneurs move beyond individual survival toward collective forms of empowerment through advocacy, mentoring, and efforts to repair entrepreneurial ecosystems.
By centering disabled entrepreneurs in a post-Soviet context, the paper challenges dominant well-being models that treat health as a fixed end-state. Instead, it conceptualizes well-being as fluid, relational, and deeply political — continually reconfigured across the entrepreneurial journey. The study contributes a processual perspective that highlights how marginalized actors not only navigate adversity, but actively reimagine entrepreneurship as a space for inclusion, collective healing, and social change.
The article is co-authored by Shumaila Yousafzai, Rana Zayadin, Aigerim Tarbagataeva, and Mohammad Habib Abdullah, and is available online through the journal.