Counternarrating Entrepreneurship

By Ewald Kibler & Lauri Laine of Aalto University.

"Abstract

Schumpeter envisioned entrepreneurship research as a way to examine and understand how capitalism changes. This notwithstanding, contemporary entrepreneurship studies predominantly explore the emergence and growth of new business firms, thus adopting a view that assumes a positive macro-level role for entrepreneurship in society even as it neglects the destructivity which was key to Schumpeter's theory. To bring capitalism back into entrepreneurship, we suggest a narrative approach to entrepreneurial history. Specifically, we introduce counternarratives to discuss new ways of thinking about the micro-macro linkage in entrepreneurship and to open up fresh understandings of creative destruction within, and beyond, capitalism. We conclude the paper with practical suggestions for new entrepreneurial histories that develop alternative narratives."

The dialectic of 'creative-destruction': a fabric of entrepreneurial heroes, the case of an emblematic novel: The Ladies' Paradise

Sylvain Bureau and Rym Ibrahim. From International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing.

"Abstract

The Schumpeterian 'creative destruction' is a well-known concept, yet there is a tendency to emphasise either its bright side - entrepreneurs as great contributors to economic development - or its dark side - entrepreneurs' activities contributing to various damages. In this paper, we aim to move beyond this dichotomy to fully grasp the dialectic. To do so, we pose the following question: How does the 'creative destruction' dialectic support the fabric of heroic entrepreneurs? To answer this question, we analyse a 19th-century narrative of an entrepreneurial journey as depicted in the famous novel The Ladies' Paradise by the naturalist writer Émile Zola. Based on our analysis, we detail how four themes of narrative dialectic - economic, socio-political, cognitive, and artifactual - support the fabric of an entrepreneurial hero in the novel. This new framework helps to reconceptualise 'creative destruction' and offers new perspectives for discussing the heroisation of entrepreneurs, bringing new possibilities for teaching entrepreneurship through fiction."