Williams, C.C. (2013) Beyond the entrepreneur as a heroic icon of capitalist culture: some lessons from Ukraine. Debatte, 21 (1). 51 - 66 . ISSN 1469-3712
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to contest the ideologically driven depiction of the entrepreneur as a heroic icon of capitalist culture. To do this, a 2006 survey involving face-to-face interviews with 331 entrepreneurs in Ukraine is reported. This displays that the vast majority do not conform to the depiction of the entrepreneur as a heroic icon of capitalism; just 8% of the Ukrainian entrepreneurs surveyed are engaged purely in profit-driven entrepreneurship in the legitimate economy. The vast majority of entrepreneurs either do not pursue purely profit-driven goals and adopt social motives to varying degrees, and/or operate wholly or partially beyond the legitimate economy. In doing so, this study reveals that entrepreneurship and the enterprise culture can no longer be taken as signifying the transition to a capitalist economy in this post-Soviet space. Instead, its multiple forms are here argued to open up entrepreneurship to re-signification as demonstrative of the feasibility of alternative economic futures in post-Soviet spaces beyond an immutable and inevitable legitimate profit-driven capitalist economy.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2013 Taylor & Francis |
Keywords: | enterprise culture; entrepreneurs; social entrepreneurship; informal economy; capitalism; transition economies; Ukraine |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Management School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 23 Jun 2015 11:09 |
Last Modified: | 03 Nov 2016 07:32 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0965156X.2013.830041 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/0965156X.2013.830041 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:87300 |