This paper contributes to a recent movement to reframe entrepreneurship theory into a more critical and reflexive mode. It builds on the processual notion of entrepreneuring-as-emancipation to theorize a balanced conception of agency and active constraint rooted in the notion of power rituals. We develop a micro-sociological analysis of power rituals that conceives power reproduction and entrenchment as a 'practice-based' activity that focuses on what power holders and subordinates concretely do, think and feel. This makes emotion a key dimension of entrepreneurial agency and redefines constraining barriers to agency in terms of a social process of 'barring'. This novel approach is illustrated using an autobiographical account of a social entrepreneurship project. On the basis of this analysis, a number of insights are provided into the ways in which the power-as-practice approach can inform wider debates in organization studies where the notions of agency and constraint are linked to issues of power and resistance.
Purpose -This paper aims to examine the process by which the social entrepreneurial identity can be constructed through narrative, concentrating specifically on the construction of the identity of the ideologically inclined social-activist entrepreneur. Design/methodology/approach -A case study approach is employed of a social-activist entrepreneur who established a refugee help centre in a major Australian city. The data are presented through the genre of allowing the narrator to enjoy the primary voice in the form of an extended narrative. Findings -The findings show how the social entrepreneur constructs his identity through crafted divisions based on oppositional and appositional principles of setting apart (a claim of separation) and bringing together (a claim of similarity). It is emphasised how the impact of the particular audience and the possibility of narrative omissions can both influence the narrative product as it is constructed by the social entrepreneur. Practical implications -The analysis has implications for our manner of understanding how ideologically inclined social entrepreneurs can experience the tension of lacing together potentially contrasting discourses while maintaining the overall integrative nature of their narrative. Originality/value -The findings possess value and originality by making two major contributions to the extant literature. First, we challenge the central tendency in the literature to concentrate on dominant discourses by analysing the manner in which ideological social entrepreneurs construct their identity through their joint crafting of the discourses of "Me" and "Not-Me", and the non-discourse of "Suppressed-Me". Second, we add to the literature on how informants deal with the tension of managing conflicting discourses by analysing the concept of "discourse suppression" as the narrative tendency of social activist entrepreneurs.
Team-based learning (TBL) was applied within a third-year unit of study about ethics and management with the aim of enhancing students' teamwork skills. A survey used to collect students' opinions about their experience with TBL provided insights about how TBL helped students to develop an appreciation for teamwork and team collaboration. The team skills acquired through TBL could strengthen job readiness for business.
Purpose -This paper draws upon the Schumpeterian statement that effective change only comes from within. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether this notion can be applied to personal life and practices displayed by certain individuals wishing to innovate themselves by recombining given personal resources with the purpose of establishing a new person enterprise. Design/methodology/approach -The approach used in this article is to conceptually propose and argue a reading of entrepreneurship as the agency of an innovative subject, embedded in a Foucauldian technology of the self based on self-care and self-knowledge. Findings -The analysis leads to the finding that the individual who challenges (or resists) destiny, or a given personal order, and manages to establish a new personal order, is entrepreneurial in so far as s/he changes the way of doing things, or a static way of living.Research limitations/implications -The paper suggests theoretical implications for further research. The use of Schumpeter to analyse personal practices as a form of entrepreneurship reinforces the notion of entrepreneurship beyond the business context and opens up research possibilities in a variety of fields and ways, for example, research capable of linking ethics and entrepreneurship, self-reflexivity and entrepreneurship, and subjectivity and entrepreneurship. Originality/value -The article is original in that it bids to extend the theory of entrepreneurship to perspectives that are clearly embedded in personal life for the sake of self-development. Its value is that it allows for a transcending of both the economic and social notions of entrepreneurship, enabling us to outline a third dimension to the literature, which we call a person enterprise.
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