Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Structure and Entrepreneurship in Ghana

本项目考察了加纳的社会身份和网络关系如何影响小型企业家的成功。加纳的经济不确定，制成品的担保并不常见。为了销售产品，制造商必须赢得客户的信任，让他们相信他们的产品质量好，当产品出现问题时，他们会好好照顾他们。然而，像其他非洲国家一样，加纳是一个种族分裂的社会，往往很难在种族群体之间建立信任关系。如果这种关系只限于自己的民族，市场将受到严重限制。然而，调查人员在加纳进行的初步研究结果表明，一些制造商的客户来自不同的种族群体，总销售额也高于其他制造商。一种可能的解释是，成功的人依赖于基于宗教的广泛认同，而不是基于种族的狭隘认同。该项目以试点研究的数据和分析为基础，收集和分析了关于加纳族裔和宗教特征及其对创业成功影响的其他数据。

This project examines how social identities and network ties in Ghana affect the success of small-scale entrepreneurs. Ghana has an uncertain economy where warranties on manufactured products are not common. In order to sell products, manufacturers must earn trust from customers and convince them that their products are good quality and that they will take good care of them when the products have problems. Like other African countries, however, Ghana is an ethnically divided society, and it is often difficult to develop trust relationships across ethnic groups. If such relationships were confined within one's own ethnic group, the market would be severely limited. However, pilot study results conducted by the investigator in Ghana indicate that some manufacturers have more customers from varied ethnic groups and more total sales than others. One possible explanation is that successful ones rely on broad identities based on religion rather that on narrower identities based on ethnicity. Building on data and analyses of the pilot study, the project collects and analyzes additional data on ethnic and religious identities in Ghana, and their influence on entrepreneurial success.