دانلود رایگان مقاله آی ویوی به عنوان کارآفرین

Abstract

We challenge the obvious and easy association of enterprise and entrepreneurship. We do so by arguing that entrepreneurship is inherently social and collective, something that is concealed when held up as example of enterprising behaviour. We use as an illustrative case the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, an example of entrepreneurship that has little to do with commerce and everything to do with the social nature of creativity. We conclude by equating entrepreneurship to generosity: a social production of possibility from which all opportunities and ventures emerge.

5. Conclusion

We believe this study has made a contribution to revitalizing entrepreneurship research (Hoskisson et al., 2011) by showing how the social side of entrepreneurship is central to its capacity to enhance people's possibilities for living. Stripped to bare form, we have argued that Weiwei's entrepreneurship helps us see clearer what is central to all entrepreneurship: that is not simply enterprise, but value-creation that changes society for the better, and can, as such, not be restricted to individuals constantly adjusting to changing conditions (cf. Schumpeter's ‘adaptive response’, describing a nonentrepreneurial approach to change; Schumpeter, 1947). Without any calculated awareness of what collective or social transformation yields, we have read Sunflower Seeds as a spilling over from the orthodox ways of doing things exposing entrepreneur and audience alike to possibility. We have no interest in romanticizing either art or entrepreneurship as such, but we try to learn from examples where creation processes open up new possibilities for living, and do so by making it possible for others to move beyond present limits. Not all such moves will create value, only the process will tell.