Existential Capital and the Third Place: An Existential Empowerment Ecosystem for Home-Based Businesses (Case Study: Mehr Iran Qard al-Hasan Bank)
Keywords:
Existential capital, existential empowerment ecosystem, home, based businesses, Mehr Iran Loan BankAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to develop an “Existential Empowerment Ecosystem (E³)” model grounded in the concepts of existential capital and the third place to explain and enhance the sustainability of home-based businesses in Iran.
Methodology: A qualitative design integrating hermeneutic phenomenology and systematic grounded theory was employed. Twenty participants, including bank employees, retired welfare beneficiaries, NGO facilitators, university academics, and home-based business owners, were selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews and field notes and analyzed using MAXQDA at descriptive, interpretive, and existential levels.
Findings: The findings identified institutional humiliation as the strongest predictor of business failure and dignity as the most influential predictor of sustainability. Eighty percent of unsuccessful participants reported experiences of humiliation during the loan acquisition process, compared with only 14.3% of successful participants. Business sustainability was also associated with a strong entrepreneurial idea, self-belief, motivation, initial personal investment, chain-guarantee mechanisms, and positive engagement with local NGOs. The E³ theory was developed around five propositions: dignity-centeredness, meaning-making, agency enhancement, the existential third place, and existential empowerment. A four-layer ecosystem model and an existential feedback loop were also identified. Furthermore, the Existential Capital Scale (ECS) and Existential Well-Being Index (EWI) were conceptually developed as practical assessment tools.
Conclusion: The sustainability of home-based businesses is fundamentally an existential phenomenon rather than a purely financial or institutional one. Dignity, meaning, hope, autonomy, and belonging constitute the core drivers of long-term sustainability. Therefore, redesigning banking and support systems around existential empowerment, eliminating humiliating procedures, strengthening third-place institutions, and adopting existential assessment indicators can substantially improve the resilience and sustainability of home-based enterprises.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Mahdi Shahbazi, freyedon ahmadi, Hamed Rahmani (Author)
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