Local culture as a context for entrepreneurial activities

Abstract

This paper examines how an industrial legacy leads to the formation of a distinct local culture and how the culture's survival provides a context for the subsequent entrepreneurial activities in new local industries. The discussion about culture as a key driver of entrepreneurship and economic growth is well established in the academic debate. However, we know little about how culture is formed. Through a qualitative case study of two polar Swedish cities, the study highlights four key factors which are instrumental in the formation of local culture: initial conditions, characteristics of key players, network activities and composition of newcomers. We show how the local entrepreneurs responded to the underlying assumptions of the two different cultures. ARTICLE HISTORY

Entrepreneurial intentions and perceived barriers to entrepreneurship among youth in Uttarakhand state of India

“…A growing number of recent scholars (Krueger et al, 2013;Hopp and Stephan, 2012) believe that culture can no longer be equated with nation, primarily because of widespread multiculturalism and immigration. Different sub-cultures exist within any given country (Davidsson and Wiklund, 1997;Garcia-Cabrera and Garcia-Soto, 2008;Levie, 2007), and scholars have consistently stressed on the importance of local and regional culture in the study of entrepreneurship (Gunnerud, 1997;Lang et al, 2014;Fredin and Jogmark, 2017;Hofstede, 2001). Several scholars have argued that compared with national culture, community-level cultural norms reflect a more proximal context within which entrepreneurial action takes place (Hopp and Stephan, 2012;Aoyama, 2009).…”

“…Very few empirical studies have examined the association between culture and entrepreneurship at the regional level (Hayton et al, 2002;Hopp and Stephan, 2012). The available studies (Davidsson, 1995;Davidsson and Wiklund, 1997;Fredin and Jogmark, 2017) have indicated a significant association between local cultures and the regional rate of new firm formation. This study takes the above-mentioned concerns into consideration and attempts a formal investigation on the role of gender and regional culture on the perceived barriers to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intentions in the two culturally diverse regions of Garhwal and Kumaon, which belong to the same state of Uttarakhand and are under a single government.…”

“…Consequently, the entrepreneurship support system and the business environment are expected to remain similar in both regions. We assessed regional cultural impact, based on the local cultural dimensions developed by Fredin and Jogmark (2017). These scholars identify culture as a complex whole, which cannot be divided into sub-values.…”

The Role of Geographical Area and Entrepreneurs' Personality

“…In short, these studies that analyse cultural evolution based on personality traits are critical in understanding the origin and effects of regional business culture. They highlight the usefulness of approaching personality in studying economic environments (Fredin and Jogmark, 2017).…”

Entrepreneurial university dynamics: Structured ambivalence, relative deprivation and institution-formation in the Stanford innovation system

“…Controversies persist over whether entrepreneurship can be taught or not (Kuratko, 2005), or the role of gender or family background in the likeliness to become an entrepreneur (Wang & Wong, 2004;De Martino & Barbato, 2003), or whether local culture has an influence on entrepreneurial activities (Fredin & Jogmark, 2017). In general, the literature has focused on entrepreneurship as an individual trait, whether in inherited or learned, relatively neglecting the collective nature of the entrepreneurial phenomenon (Schumpeter, 1951).…”