Islam, entrepreneurship, and embeddedness

Abstract

This study centers on the premise that entrepreneurship is an embedded process. Although “the entrepreneur” is inherently an “individual,” entrepreneurship can never be fully disembedded from the more general social settings within which any business venture is situated. An Islamic‐based economic discursive framework should be cognizant of the different forms of sociality, spatiality, and community as well as the various norms, codes, and symbols that define society more generally. The work of Karl Polanyi on embeddedness is engaged and juxtaposed with Islam's understanding of the ideal mode of economic discursive practices. Islamic economic models and Polanyi are both critical of the corrosive effects of unbridled capitalism and individualism that ultimately lead to reification and exploitation. The conclusion recommends more small‐N case studies by researchers and entrepreneurial educational materials that emphasize the importance of networks and local embeddedness.

O “Problema da Imersão” nos Estudos do Empreendedorismo: Uma Proposição Teórica

“…In fact, even today, "existing research on … networks has focused heavily on market ties and to a lesser degree on referential ties" (Ahuja, Soda, & Zaheer, 2012, p. 443). In search for titles (embedde* and/ or social structure) of articles available on "CAPES Scientific Journals Gateway" and published over the last 5 years, few studies (Jerolmack & Tavory, 2014;Julien, Favre, Chatellet, & Lazega, 2016;Ozdemir, Moran, Zhong, & Bliemel, 2014;Tok & Kaminski, 2018) have sought, as proposed here, to investigate the concept of embeddedness and its potential connections with economic studies. Still, they refer to contexts other than entrepreneurship, which is of particular interest in this study.…”

“…This feature even impacted studies on entrepreneurship. The literature in the area provided the economic idea that entrepreneurs would be autonomous and self-sufficient (Hmieleski, Carr, & Baron, 2015;Tok & Kaminski, 2018). They would even be able to alter "the existing technological or productive paradigm itself" (Vale, Wilkinson, & Amâncio, 2008, p. 8).…”

“…In fact, Colbari (2007) points out how entrepreneurs are "bearers of exceptional qualities and skills" (p. 9); how they have attributes that can differentiate them from others (see, for example: Hmieleski et al, 2015;Tok & Kaminski, 2018). In this line of thought, "venture success … seems to involve the entrepreneur's behavioral characteristics" (Ostgaard & Birley, 1996, p. 37); their "firm performance [would] be a reflection of [their] characteristics [and] behaviors" (Hmieleski et al, 2015, p. 292).…”

Waqf, perpetual charity, in a general system theory of tawhidi metascience

“…A view of microenterprise in Islam, in which can be embedded the waqf as a creative grassroots development institutional idea, has recently been presented by Tok and Keminski (). The authors compare Islamic entrepreneurship to Polanyi's embedded economy as opposed to a differentiated economy (Holton, ).…”

“…Our article shuns the "shari'ah-compliance" approach and adopts the singular primal ontological explanatory Law of Tawhid as expression of Unity of Knowledge (Wilson, 1998) A view of microenterprise in Islam, in which can be embedded the waqf as a creative grassroots development institutional idea, has recently been presented by Tok and Keminski (2018). The authors compare Islamic entrepreneurship to Polanyi's embedded economy as opposed to a differentiated economy (Holton, 1992).…”