Entrepreneursheep and context: when entrepreneurship is greater than entrepreneurs

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain how context shapes what becomes entrepreneurial. Design/methodology/approach The paper is part of a longitudinal study over ten years, an ethnographic work including interviews, participating in meetings and shadowing. Texts and voices boiled down to transcripts and notes were sorted in NVivo. The empirical material was presented as a simple, short story, with the aim to question established assumptions and relations. The paper propose context as the unit for analysis, instead of entrepreneurs and outcomes. This opened up the scale from a narrow individualism to a much broader appreciation of the entrepreneurship as shaped by social factors. Findings The paper provides insights about how context determines entrepreneurship. It is not simply the context in itself, but the things that are going on in the context. What entrepreneurship does is to connect and thus create a raft of changes. The paper suggests that to depart from context as the unit of analysis will avoid the objectification of entrepreneurship and open up for discussing the becoming of entrepreneurship. The case illustrates how entrepreneurship is an event in a flow of changing circumstances. Entrepreneurship is formed from the context itself, rather than being individual or social; entrepreneurship appears simultaneously to be both. Entrepreneurship can and does exist in multiple states regardless of the observer and the observation. Originality/value This paper fulfils an identified need to learn more about how entrepreneurship and context interact. It illustrates how context is more engaged in the entrepreneurial process than entrepreneurship theory acknowledges.

Conceptualising animation in rural communities: the Village SOS case

“…15 This study therefore describes a new concept, which can explain something hitherto overlooked. This study also fulfils an identified need to learn more about how entrepreneurship and context interact (Gaddefors and Anderson 2017).…”

“…Here the context is important because it shapes what becomes entrepreneurial; according to Gaddefors and Anderson (2017), context can determine what type of entrepreneurship emerges. However, it is not the context in general that is important, but what is specifically going on in that context, as entrepreneurship connects to and thus creates a raft of changes.…”

“…The cases elaborate our concept of animatorship and the empirical material acts as simple, short stories to question established assumptions and relations (as per Gaddefors and Anderson 2017) relating to entrepreneurship and animatorship. Table 2 provides an analysis of the main emergent themes from the interviews.…”

Introduction

“…Were we to repeat this search and analysis today, I think we would find many more studies discussing entrepreneurship at local level, and with a few patterns evolving. For example, Steffen Korsgaard is developing an interesting research stream on resourcefulness and rural contexts (for example, Korsgaard, Ferguson and Gaddefors 2015;Korsgaard, Müller and Tanvig 2015;Müller and Korsgaard 2018); Johan Gaddefors studies the co-creation of contexts and entrepreneurship, offering ideas for future theorizing on spatial contextualization (for example, Gaddefors and Anderson 2017;Gaddefors and Cronsell 2009). The renewed consideration for local places may well result from the contextualizing turn in the field; it provides further input for the spatial context discussion.…”

Independent female escorts: Stigmatized, value-adding entrepreneurs

“…To determine whether value accrues or decreases there is a need to understand who is involved, the type and organisation of the activity undertaken, the outcomes of the activity, and the where and when of its taking place. In short, one needs to understand the context of entrepreneurial activity (Welter, 2011;Gaddefors and Anderson, 2017).…”