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

创业从根本上讲就是通过识别、评估和利用基于市场的机会来创造和阐明价值。然而，需要研究来了解这一过程是如何展开的，以及它是否在跨文化和/或在不同的经济、政治和社会环境中存在差异，无论是在美国国内还是在更广泛的全球经济中。本研究旨在从民族志的角度考察创业的文化图式(即现实和因果关系的共同观念)在不同文化和物质环境中的差异，并特别关注价值创造过程中使用的经济、社会和文化行为。这项研究将在南非西开普省S在开普敦大都市区活跃的企业家中进行。这是一个特别合适的研究网站，原因有两个。首先，虽然南非是非洲大陆最强劲的经济体之一，但由于22年前结束的种族隔离政权的持久影响，该国仍面临高失业率和不平等。以“高影响力创业”的理念鼓励新企业缓解失业和贫困，并用市场化的解决方案解决南非的社会经济问题？S。第二，调查人员自2012年以来一直在该地区进行研究，因此拥有该地区人种学工作所需的当地文化知识，以及利用少量资金取得重大研究影响所需的支持所需的专业联系。通过参与者观察和半结构化访谈，研究人员旨在发现一种或多种文化模式(即？图式？)了解开普敦大都市区企业家的情况，并了解这些文化模式在(1)属于不同文化群体的企业家和(2)资源和支持水平不同的企业家之间有何不同。这项研究的发现将提供洞察如何在不同的文化环境中不同的文化模式和对创业的理解，以及这可能如何影响人类对价值的理解。

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.