Entrepreneurship and the innovative self: a Schumpeterian reflection

Abstract

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.

A Bourdieuan Relational Perspective for Entrepreneurship Research

“…The field-specific illusio imposes a worldview which is seen as commonsense and therefore fundamentally legitimate by the field's players. In this context, for example, entrepreneurs feel compelled to demonstrate a particular set of values and beliefs in order to legitimize themselves in the field, for example, demonstrating their entrepreneurial powers to succeed, their ability to present themselves as "innovative self" (Betta, Jones, and Latham 2010), their self-reliance and ambition together with a dislike for institutional and bureaucratic environments, and an aspiration to lead (Goss et al 2011;Rindova, Barry, and Ketchen 2009). Their attachment to the notion of "enterprising self" reveals itself in adherence to traditional conceptualizations of entrepreneurial ethos.…”

Social Capital and Firm Performance: Moderating Effect of Environmental Turbulence

“…To some extend, flexibility and informal style enhances the capability of firms to deal with ET, which then followed by positive impact on FP. Specifically, technology turbulence foster 'energetic will', which enable firms to create new innovation (Bertta, Jones, & Latham, 2010). On the other hand, EM may be no more relevant under high ET.…”

Power as Practice: A Micro-sociological Analysis of the Dynamics of Emancipatory Entrepreneurship

“…(2009: 478) They recognize overcoming constraint as a formidable task ('many [entrepreneurs] may have only a limited understanding of the solidity of the structures they seek to dislodge'). Indeed, because of this centrality they make it a defining principle of entrepreneuring: 'change creation through removal of constraints' (Rindova et al 2009: 479;see also Schumpeter 1934;Betta et al 2010). However, Rindova et al (2009) elucidate neither the nature of constraint nor the process through which individuals strive to remove it.…”