Sarah Drakopoulou Dodd

National differences in entrepreneurial networking

The paper reports findings of a study into the personal contact networks of Greek entrepreneurs, and compares these to results already published for other countries (Canada, Japan, Italy, Northern Ireland, Sweden, the UK, and the USA). Findings show that generic behaviour across borders cannot be assumed, although similarities exist in the under-representation of women as network members, the average age of network contacts, duration of relationships, and average monthly meetings. A clear example has also been provided of a culture where business networks are very deeply embedded in social structures, and where little or no evidence of an instrumentalist neo-classical model can be found. From a theoretical perspective, adaptation of Hofstedes four-dimensional model provides a generally robust interpretive framework for the results.

An entrepreneurial network evolving: Patterns of change

It is now recognized that to broaden our understanding about networks more qualitative and longitudinal work is required that examines transformation and the change processes of networks; how they emerge and develop over time. The case study reported here deals with these issues. It considers the development of a network for new entrepreneurs first established by a local enterprise support agency in North East Scotland.This forum provided a near ‘natural experiment’ to chart network emergence, change and evolution. Employing participant observation, interviews and surveys, data were collected over a six-year period. This allowed the network to be mapped, and provided information about structural characteristics and in-depth detail about network dynamics and change processes over time. Findings show how network structure shifts from calculative to affective ties and demonstrate the importance of social ties for the operation of a network.

Social structures and entrepreneurial networks: the strength of strong ties.

The entrepreneurial context provides a fertile arena for the study of networks. This qualitative study critically examines the nature, content and process of strong ties, which are found to fall into three categories: family, business contacts, and suppliers, competitors and customers. These nodal categories each provide a specific range of support to the entrepreneur. Their appropriate and effective utilization greatly facilitates enterprise performance.

The Interrelationships between Entrepreneurship and Religion

This article examines the interrelationships between religion and enterprise. The authors find that these are highly context-specific, and will vary markedly over time and social setting, mediated by other socio-cultural variables such as political structures and ideologies, and religious symbolism in the workplace. The individual elements making up an entrepreneurs belief matrix influence the entrepreneurial process. Where religious salience is high, entrepreneurs will tend to use religious criteria to inform their decision making, even if it harms their short-term commercial interests. Religious groups can also provide a resource for the generation of entrepreneurial social capital.

Scottish entrepreneurial networks in the international context.

The research note reports findings of a study into the personal contact networks of Scottish entrepreneurs, and compares these to results already published for other countries (Canada, Greece, Japan, Italy, Northern Ireland, Sweden and the USA). The findings show that variable network behaviour across borders exists. Entrepreneurs from the North East of Scotland exhibit a tendency towards small, tightly-integrated networks.

The impact of regional entrepreneurial contexts upon enterprise education

Growing evidence demonstrates the significance of regional contexts in shaping entrepreneurship capital, and the importance of this for entrepreneurial knowledge and learning. We report the findings of a six-country study into enterprise education within schools, in less and more developed European regions. The fieldwork exposes differences by regional type, across enterprise education objectives, outcomes, resources and social constructions of the entrepreneur. Regional context can be seen as developing local narratives of entrepreneurial identities and careers. Context-setting within schools takes the form of storying entrepreneurship, of presenting credible local identities and expressing the meaning of entrepreneurship for these communities.

Understanding the Enterprise Culture Paradigm Paradox and Policy

Although the UKs enterprise culture emanates from the Thatcher era, critiques of current (and proposed) industrial policies and initiatives make the observation that the current Blairite enterprise policies are remarkably similar in their ideological underpinning to those of the Thatcherite 1980s. The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual explanation for two seemingly irreconcilable phenomena: the persistence of the enterprise culture as a dominant UK model for economic development against the very limited success this model has enjoyed in achieving its objectives. To do so the authors first explore the concept of culture and then develop an ideal typology of the broad bundle of ideas and ideologies that have come to be known as the ‘enterprise culture’. This is deconstructed to test its rigour and to explore paradox and appropriateness as a contemporary economic development model. Broadly, they conclude that the failure of enterprise culture policies to impact upon the life and work of the small firm owner-manager are culturally-based, due, not least, to substantive differences in the material ‘ways of doing’ ascribed to enterprise adherents and small firm owner-managers. Given that entrepreneurship, as an approach to business, has also long been recommended as a cure for the ills of larger firms, particularly by government agencies, the coherence of the enterprise culture paradigm stretches beyond the small firm sector. Furthermore, the authors hope to contribute to the wider debate concerning the impact of management cultures on organizational performance and, in particular, their relationship with non-managerial cultures in the surrounding society, including the political and rhetorical spheres.

From admiration to abhorrence: the contentious appeal of entrepreneurship across Europe.

Although entrepreneurship seems to offer a universal economic solution, there are some doubts about whether it is universally attractive. We argue that entrepreneurship is a socially constructed concept and consequently the meanings, and hence the appeal, of the enterprise will vary internationally. We argue that how entrepreneurship is understood affects how attractive it seems. Accordingly, we investigated the meanings of entrepreneurship by analysing a range of metaphors of entrepreneurship gathered from schools across Europe. We found that both the meaning and understandings of the practices vary considerably. For most, the concept of entrepreneurship as an engine of the economy is attractive, but for some, the practices of entrepreneurs were considerably less appealing. We find links between national socio-economic contexts and attractiveness. We argue that culture and context seem to influence the social constructions of entrepreneurship and hence the attractiveness of entrepreneurial options. We also find that the pedagogical national narratives of the entrepreneur stand in dynamic tension with the performative national processes of entrepreneurship.

The Mechanisms and Processes of Entrepreneurial Networks: Continuity and Change

Although the literature addressing entrepreneurial networking is reaching a fairly high degree of sophistication and scope, there are certain critical areas where important questions remain unanswered. Specifically, research into the processes of entrepreneurial networking has been hindered by a paucity of longitudinal studies. Thus, the consideration of change over time is de facto limited. Moreover, accounts of how individuals actually use networks to learn about entrepreneurship, its practices and processes remain sparse. Yet, we know that learning is a social process, so the research gap lies in relating networks, as social contexts to the entrepreneurial learning process. Furthermore, since social relations are fundamental to everyones life, and emerge, develop and change throughout their life course, people are embedded in social situations that put them in touch with others (Kim & Aldrich, 2005). Consequently, learning is often “located in the relations among actors” (Uzzi & Lancaster, 2003, p. 398). As well as direct learning through network contacts, network transitivity also facilitates learning by one embedded network member, through the knowledge held by a second member, about a third, as shown in Uzzi and Gillespies (2002) study. Accordingly, in many ways how entrepreneurs go about using their networks and with whom they network may be critical for entrepreneurship and thus warrants investigation. It is to this end that we now consider the shape, content and process of entrepreneurial networking.

Painting the full picture: The conversion of economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital

This article explores how and why entrepreneurs convert their available economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital. We utilise Bourdieu’s theory of practice as a conceptual framework to explore the lived experiences of 10 craft entrepreneurs. This study reveals that transforming capital is a natural and enjoyable process, with our findings highlighting the convertible, multifaceted nature of different forms of capital. We also uncover previously unidentified forms of capital conversions and demonstrate that the conversion process can involve multiple forms of capital. Furthermore, our findings show that craft entrepreneurs give no primacy to economic capital, whose transformations form part of a larger process of capital conversion.