Anthropology: An Entrepreneurial Discipline
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v14i1.7535Abstract
In this essay, I take stock of the existing entanglements and possible future symbiosis between anthropology and entrepreneurship, both as a field of research and as a practice of venture creation. While anthropologists have studied entrepreneurship as an economic phenomenon (anthropology of entrepreneurship) and have more modestly entered into direct conversation with this field (anthropology in entrepreneurship), I propose that there is an alternative way in which the discipline can make an impact and assert its value in the realm of new venture creation. To substantiate this proposition, I showcase how anthropologists and founders share affinities of practice. Specifically examining uncertainty, failure, and pivoting as fundamental to both how anthropological knowledge is generated and how venture creation unfolds, I argue that, seen in this way, anthropological practice and thinking can be understood as fundamental to business creation.
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