Doctoral Dissertation Research: Enterprising Value: Cultural Models of Entrepreneurship in Diverse Economic Landscapes

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Entrepreneurship is fundamentally about creating and articulating value through the identification, evaluation, and exploitation of market-based opportunities. However, research is needed to understand how this process unfolds and whether it differs cross-culturally and/or in different economic, political, and social environments, both within the United States and within the broader global economy. This study aims to ethnographically investigate how cultural schemas (i.e. shared ideas of reality and causality) of entrepreneurship differ across cultures and material environments, with specific attention to the economic, social, and cultural behaviors used in the process of value creation. The research will be conducted in South Africa?s Western Cape among active entrepreneurs in the Cape Town metropolitan area. This is a particularly apt research site for two reasons. First, while South Africa is one of the most robust economies on the African continent, the country still suffers from high rates of unemployment and inequality due to the lasting effects of the apartheid regime that ended only 22 years ago. The concept of "high impact entrepreneurship" to encourage new businesses to alleviate unemployment and poverty, and address South Africa?s socio-economic problems with market oriented solutions. Second, the investigators have done research in the region since 2012, and therefore have the local cultural knowledge of the region that is necessary for ethnographic work, as well as the professional contacts necessary to leverage the support needed to make significant research impact with a small amount of funding. Using participant observation and semi-structured interviews the researchers aim to discover one or more cultural models (i.e., ?schemas?) of entrepreneurship in the Cape Town metropolitan area, and to understand how these cultural schemas differ among (1) entrepreneurs who belong to different cultural groups and (2) entrepreneurs with differing levels of resources and support. Findings from this research will provide insight into how cultural models and understandings of entrepreneurship vary across different cultural environments, and how this may impact human understandings of value.