Entrepreneurship and ideology: Accelerationism, degrowth, and the emerging political economy of venture creation

Abstract

Entrepreneurship research has long privileged economic motivations - profit, market opportunities, and innovation - often sidelining the constitutive role of ideology. This article challenges that dominant paradigm by proposing a conceptual framework that foregrounds the ideological entrepreneur : an actor who strategically employs venture creation as a tool for political world-building. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's notions of deterritorialization, Hirschman's theory of exit, voice, and loyalty, and Slobodian's analyses of neoliberal zone-making, we delineate how ideologically motivated entrepreneurs construct alternative socio-technical systems to realize distinct, often competing, visions of the future. We examine three primary archetypes: right-accelerationist entrepreneurs leveraging technology to build enclaves facilitating exit from democratic oversight; left-accelerationists mobilizing automation for systemic post-capitalist transformation; and degrowth/decelerationist actors constructing alternative, ecologically-grounded, and human-centric economies. These ventures aim not only to disrupt markets but also reshape societal norms, ethical principles, and systems of governance. We contribute to emerging heterodox perspectives within entrepreneurship studies by recasting the entrepreneur as a potent ideological agent.

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