Entrepreneurial ecosystems have been found to embed structures that limit full participation of women and minority entrepreneurs. Yet, little is known about what actors in the ecosystem may do to drive change toward more diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Drawing from qualitative data of seven entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) in Canada including 66 semi-structured interviews with multiple stakeholders, this paper develops the concept of equity work in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Adopting a social-symbolic work perspective, we find that ESOs engage in discursive and material work to construct different DEI narratives, namely representation, systems-change and laissez-faire narratives, to legitimize their DEI work. Yet, we also find that the impactful work occurs in relationships between different actors in the ecosystem. Our study contributes to the nascent stream of research on DEI in entrepreneurial ecosystems, clarifies the power of ESOs, and proposes to conceptualize entrepreneurial ecosystems as a social-symbolic system.
