Cartographic Design of Nano-Scale Family Productive Systems: Actions, Leadership, and Spatial Resignification by Women Entrepreneurs

This article examines the cartographic design of nano-scale productive systems led by women nano-entrepreneurs, understood as family-based productive arrangements embedded in everyday domestic spaces. In rural contexts, many women-led ventures operate at a nano-scale and are organized around household dynamics, where entrepreneurial leadership, family labor, and productive activities intersect. Drawing on a qualitative territorial research approach, the study combines semi-structured interviews, fieldwork, and cartographic design to identify productive actions and the spaces in which they take place. The findings show that these nano-scale productive systems function through the articulation of multiple actions rather than formal organizational structures, and that women exercise entrepreneurial leadership by coordinating family-based activities within and beyond the home. As a result, everyday spaces, particularly the household, are resignified as workshops, points of sale, and centers of management, giving rise to locally embedded family-based enterprises in emerging rural economies. Using cartographic design as an analytical tool, the article contributes to research on family entrepreneurship and leadership by highlighting how women-led nanoenterprises reshape spatial organization, and productive practices within emerging family firms.