Journal of Business Anthropology

The Editor's Two Cents

Greg Urban — 2019-11-14

The Editor's Two Cents

Entrepreneurship: A Challenging, Fruitful Domain for Ethnography

Elizabeth K. Briody — 2019-11-14

Entrepreneurship: A Challenging, Fruitful Domain for Ethnography

Emerging Ties-Nigerian Entrepreneurs and Chinese Business Associates

U. Ejiro O. Onomake-McShane — 2019-11-14

Africa-China relationships consists of various interactions between government officials, to large corporations, and individuals. This article examines the emerging relationship between Africa and China through the ethnography of a Nigerian entrepreneur who seeks to expand his business by selling to Chinese clients. Entrepreneurship is lauded in Nigerian society. China's increasing presence in the country is often presented as a positive economic opportunity for Nigerians, including entrepreneurs. This research highlights the complex nature of business relationships between Nigerian entrepreneurs and Chinese counterparts. To build trust and business ties, the entrepreneur highlighted manages his brand via social media, utilizes social capital, and taps into relatedness and kinship within Chinese business circles.

Cheese in Chijnaya: Communal Entrepreneurship in Rural Peru

Ralph Bolton — 2019-11-14

Individual entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship may be more common both in daily life and in the research literature, but community- based entrepreneurship also plays an important role in economic development. We present a case study of community entrepreneurship in a rural area of the Andes, where the community of Chijnaya operates a successful cheese production business. Buying milk from its farmer members in the community, the business produces cheeses that are sold in regional urban markets and beyond. This account draws on decades of ethnographic research and collaboration with the community. Here, we discuss the history of the community in general and of the cheese enterprise in particular. The organizational structure of the business is outlined along with a description of the production processes. We end with an analysis of problems faced by the community in moving the enterprise forward toward a more profitable future and a discussion of the relevance of this case to entrepreneurship studies.

Shifting Cases: Advancing a New Artifact for Entrepreneurial Education

Marlo Rencher — 2019-11-14

Entrepreneurship, as applied here, involves helping students develop an entrepreneurial mindset by working in a university-supported startup that lacks the artificiality of a simulation or the safety net of heavy financial subsidization. This article chronicles an organizational-wide change at a private Midwestern university and the development of a new “artifact”—the dynamic case study—to complement a new approach to business and entrepreneurial education. After reviewing the function of case studies in a teaching and research context, I consider this new kind of case study as a boundary object and means for making sense of early stage entrepreneurial activity.

Struggles and Strategies of Black Women Business Owners in the U.S.

Taylor M. Jackson — 2019-11-14

Black women start businesses at a rate above the national average. Yet, a revenue gap persists when compared to businesses owned by Black men and White men and women. Existing explanations for the differences in revenue highlight the lack of experience and limited access to start-up capital that constrain racial and gender minorities and also the type of industries in which they operate. Research specifically examining Black women business owners is very limited. In this article, we explore if Black women business owners’ gender and racial identities pose challenges to running their businesses. We find that, because of their race and gender, Black women business owners contend with unique challenges that many entrepreneurs do not face. In-depth interviews reveal that they confront negative stereotypes held about them and, surprisingly, experience difficulties interacting with Black clients. These entrepreneurs cite navigation strategies that include monitoring self-presentation, adopting standards of excellence, and creating clear professional boundaries. This study suggests that Black women business owners might be spending more time than other business owners navigating challenges specifically linked to their identity, which seems to impact their business directly.

From Brides to Business Owners: Microfinance and Women’s Entrepreneurship

Paromita Sanyal — 2019-11-14

Women’s entrepreneurship through microfinance programs has been celebrated as a model for reducing poverty and empowering women. Yet, evidence of the incidence of women’s entrepreneurship has been disappointing, leading to much critique and controversy. This article presents case narratives of women enrolled in microfinance programs in rural India who took the leap onto entrepreneurship and used microcredit loans to expand or start their small-scale livelihoods enterprises. These narratives illustrate the particular economic and social conditions that are found in cases where women have transitioned from being dependent, gender-compliant housewives to sole-earners or main breadwinners. Marital failure, functional absence or retreat of husband, economic distress, living in a nuclear household, and absence of an adult son are consistently evident in all cases of women’s entrepreneurship. This qualitative analysis helps us understand why women’s entrepreneurship is not more widespread despite the availability of microcredit loans.

Personal Printers and Ink in São Paulo and Recife: Getting New Things Done

Ken C. Erickson — 2019-11-14

Team ethnography for a desktop printer manufacturer in two Brazilian cities on desktop printers and printing is reported here. Our team aimed to resolve an initial puzzle about printers and ink and explored what was going on with the desktop printers as they were acquired, used, and maintained. Our work expanded to encompass the LAN house, small shops, often operated by entrepreneurs, that provide access to the Internet and to printing. The research led to an intrapreneurial modification of a long-standing desktop printer business model by the client. The article concludes by exploring how entrepreneurs (shop owners and teams doing ethnography for hire) and intrapreneurs (those who venture from within a large enterprise) widen the scope of their venturing to encompass wider social and political issues like moral panic, poverty reduction programs, and building social capital in low-income communities in the course of entrepreneurial venturing.

Global Business Anthropology Summit 2018: Summary and Reflections

Allen W. Batteau — 2019-11-14

Global Business Anthropology Summit 2018: Summary and Reflections

Proceedings of the 2019 Global Business Anthropology Summit

Timothy de Waal Malefyt — 2019-11-14

The second Global Business Anthropology Summit was held May 28-29, 2019 at Fordham University in New York City. The 2019 Summit brought together 160 industry practitioners and academic scholars to build upon the work of the 2018 Summit. The 2019 Summit was explicitly and emphatically forward thinking and action oriented to advance anthropological ideas in business. Its broad aims were to (1) advance thinking on the value of anthropological perspectives in business; (2) generate ways to spread appreciation of our work to academics, students, industry leaders, and the general public; and (3) build community among scholars and practitioners. The Summit's plenary panels and workshops demonstrated how anthropologists penetrate nearly every domain of business and are most adept at handling issues that are humanistic and complex. Throughout the two days, the Summit acknowledged the need to continue to grow the demand for anthropologists in business.