Identity work as institutional navigation under racialized governance: Black African immigrant entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom

Black African immigrant entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom operate in racialized and fragmented institutional environments that systematically undermine their credibility. Focusing on the West Midlands, this article examines how identity work enables institutional navigation within these racialized governance conditions over time. Drawing on a two-phase narrative interview study with 32 entrepreneurs, the analysis draws on mixed embeddedness, critical race theory, postcolonial perspectives and identity work to explain how individuals construct self-positioning, engage regulatory, financial and community actors, and mobilize transnational ties to secure recognition and legitimacy. The article contributes to immigrant and ethnic minority entrepreneurship by conceptualizing identity work as a strategic mechanism of institutional navigation under racialized governance, by introducing a temporal and processual micro-foundation for mixed embeddedness, and by showing how transnational networks support hybrid legitimacy across fragmented regulatory contexts. The study advances understanding of entrepreneurship in unequal institutional settings while applying intersectionality as a secondary analytic lens.