Reframing women's entrepreneurship in a polycrisis context: a relational-temporal approach to agency in Lebanon

Purpose This study examines entrepreneurial agency among women in Lebanon, a context marked by chronic crisis and institutional collapse, through a relational-temporal framework that highlights how agency emerges, evolves and is sustained within dynamic social and temporal conditions. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on qualitative data from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 23 Lebanese women, this study illustrates the three interrelated elements of the relational-temporal framework. Iterational agency provides the foundation, rooted in inherited legacies of survival and communal social networks; projective agency defines the aspirational dimension, driven by visions of intergenerational stability and embedded care; and practical-evaluative agency predominates in daily life, involving ongoing judgment and strategic adaptation to transform past resources into solutions for present needs. Findings The findings suggest that women's entrepreneurial agency is best understood as a dynamic process in which economic action is deeply embedded in social relationships and obligations, historical experiences and future aspirations. Drawing on Emirbayer and Mische's relational-temporal framework, the findings provide empirical insights into how its chordal dimensions (iterational, projective and practical-evaluative orientations) may operate in contexts of prolonged institutional instability. Originality/value Theoretically, the article offers a crisis-attuned model of women's entrepreneurial agency that foregrounds relational provisioning and temporal asymmetry interdependence under conditions of prolonged polycrisis. From a policy perspective, this framing redirects attention toward supportive infrastructures that sustain women's practical-evaluative agency, including family-centered safety nets, community-based financial mechanisms and institutional arrangements that recognize the central role of social reproduction in entrepreneurial activity.