Performing and negotiating entrepreneurial legitimacy: gender and confidence in team-based entrepreneurship

Purpose This article examines how entrepreneurial legitimacy is constructed, performed, negotiated and experienced within a team-based, coach-led Team Academy undergraduate programme at Liverpool Business School. While Entrepreneurship Education is frequently presented as gender-neutral, dominant pedagogic practices often privilege confidence, visibility and participation. Drawing on a Team Academy context, the study explores how students experience confidence, belonging and entrepreneurial legitimacy through a gendered lens and considers the implications for responsible enterprise pedagogy. Design/methodology/approach The article presents a bounded qualitative case study of the BSc Applied Entrepreneurship programme at Liverpool Business School. Data were collected through student focus groups and analysed through Reflexive Thematic Analysis. The study explores how students' experiences of team-based learning, coaching and entrepreneurial participation with particular attention to gendered confidence, belonging and legitimacy. Findings The findings suggest that entrepreneurial legitimacy is not simply acquired through entrepreneurial activity or learning but is actively performed and negotiated through gender and confidence. Team Academy created opportunities for students to develop confidence and legitimacy through team-based learning and coaching practices. However, recognition was closely linked to visible forms of participation such as pitching and presenting confidently. Gendered tensions were evident despite simultaneous rejection of gender concerns, with female students more likely to discuss challenges. The findings suggest that entrepreneurial legitimacy is socially constructed and unevenly experienced within Entrepreneurship Education environments. Originality/value The article contributes to Entrepreneurship Education and responsible enterprise pedagogy by providing an alternative narrative to entrepreneurial intention and identity and moving towards entrepreneurial legitimacy. It demonstrates how legitimacy is socially constructed within Entrepreneurship Education through confidence, participation and belonging and highlights the potential of Team Academy-informed pedagogies to support more inclusive and reflective learning environments. The article offers insights for educators seeking to challenge dominant entrepreneurial norms and design learning environments that accommodate diverse ways of becoming entrepreneurial.