Goodbye Empathy, Hello Ownership: How Ethnography Really Functions in the Making of Entrepreneurs

Abstract

Human‐Centered Innovation has come to be known as the central discipline in the entrepreneurial arena. Through three‐years of directorship at Innovation Studio Fukuoka, a “citizen‐led” innovation incubation platform in Japan, multiple approaches have been investigated and thus learned a successful to‐be‐entrepreneur him/herself has to co‐own a concern with potential customers that evokes him/her a mission to pursue, that is beyond simply understanding customers with empathy. We witnessed ethnographic approach well facilitates the to‐be‐entrepreneur to meet an unaware yet intrinsic personal concern and nourish to co‐own it with the customers. We also discuss what and how ethnographic praxis in industry can contribute to the entrepreneurial arena and propose a new role that we experienced ethnographers to take.