The Reflective Structuration of Entrepreneurship
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SEPPO LUOTO The Reflective Structuration of Entrepreneurship As Contextualized to the Finnish University and Polytechnics Students' Narratives ACTA WASAENSIA NO 233 BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 96 MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION UNIVERSITAS WASAENSIS 2010 Reviewers Professor Daniel Hjorth Copenhagen Business School Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy Porcelænshaven 18 A DK–2000 Frederiksberg Denmark Professor Paula Kyrö Aalto University School of Economics Department of Marketing and Management P.O. Box 21210 FI–00076 Aalto Finland III Julkaisija Julkaisupäivämäärä Vaasan yliopisto Joulukuu 2010 Tekijä(t) Julkaisun tyyppi Seppo Luoto Monografia Julkaisusarjan nimi, osan numero Acta Wasaensia, 233 Yhteystiedot ISBN Vaasan yliopisto 978–952–476–326–4 Kauppatieteellinen tiedekunta ISSN Johtamisen yksikkö 0355–2667, 1235–7871 PL 700 Sivumäärä Kieli 65101 VAASA 282 englanti Julkaisun nimike Yrittäjyyden reflektiivinen strukturaatio – kontekstina suomalaisten yliopisto- ja ammattikorkeakouluopiskelijoiden tarinat yrittäjyydestä Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tarkastella yrittäjyyttä tekstuaalisena ilmiönä tutki- musta varten rakennetun niin sanotun reflektiivisen strukturaation avulla. Taustal- la on erityisesti Giddensin (1979; 1984) strukturaatioteoria, jota täydennetään kielentutkimuksen näkökulmilla. Tällöin yrittäjyys nähdään intertekstuaalisena ilmiönä sisältäen dominoivia mallitarinoita, jotka voidaan edelleen dekonstruoida vastatarinoilla. Dekonstruktion avulla voidaan edelleen luoda (narrative creation) ja legitimoida (legitimation of narratives) uusia, vaihtoehtoisia tarinoita yrittäjyy- teen liittyen. Yrittäjyystutkimuksessa tutkimus sijoittuu eurooppalaiseen tai poh- joismaalaisen tutkimustraditioon, kohdistuen erityisesti yrittäjyyttä edeltävään vaiheeseen (pre-entrepreneurship). Tutkimustehtävänä on hyödyntää kehitettyä viitekehystä suomalaisten korkeakou- luopiskelijoiden tarinoiden tarkasteluun. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu 162 tarinasta, jotka kerättiin roolipeli-menetelmällä vuosien 2004–2005 aikana Vaasan yliopis- tossa sekä Seinäjoen ammattikorkeakoulussa. Opiskelijoiden tarinoista rakennettu mallitarina muodosti selkeän jatkumon mo- derniin yrittäjyyskäsitykseen. Yrittäjyys rakennettiin yksilölliseksi, itsellisyyden ja kyvykkyyden tavoitteluksi työteliäisyyden kautta. Tämä mallitarina voidaan tulkita samalla perinnöksi suomalaisesta agraarista ja työväenluokkaisesta eetok- sesta. Tarinat uudistavat myös perinteiset, länsimaiset sukupuolittuneet käsitykset yrittäjyyteen liittyen. Näiden vastapainoksi tutkimuksessa esitettiin vaihtoehtoisia tarinamalleja erilaisten yrittäjyysidentiteettien rakennusaineiksi. Tutkimus tarjoaa teoreettisia avauksia strukturaatioteoriaan ja erilaisten tekstien analysointiin. Käytännön sovellusalueet voidaan liittää yrittäjyyskasvatuksen kenttään erityisesti narratiivisen pedagogiikan avulla. Asiasanat yrittäjyys, strukturaatio, semiotiikka, narratiivinen tutkimus, yrittäjyyskasvatus V Publisher Date of publication University of Vaasa December 2010 Author(s) Type of publication Seppo Luoto Monograph Name and number of series Acta Wasaensia, 233 Contact information ISBN University of Vaasa 978–952–476–326–4 Faculty of Business Studies ISSN Department of Management 0355–2667, 1235–7871 P.O. Box 700 Number Language FI–65101 VAASA of pages FINLAND 282 English Title of publication The Reflective Structuration of Entrepreneurship – As Contextualized to the Finnish University and Polytechnics Students` Narratives Abstract The aim of the research is to study entrepreneurship as a textual phenomenon using the constructed framework called reflective structuration. Theory of structuration by Gid- dens (1979; 1984) is modified for the purposes of this research. In this research the concept of entrepreneurship is an inter-textual phenomenon contain- ing semiotic dominances which can then be deconstructed with the counter-narrative(s), reconstructed with narrative creation and further legitimized into different forms of en- trepreneurship. Within the entrepreneurship research this research is located in the pre- entrepreneurship studies emphasizing the theoretical approaches of the European and the Nordic Entrepreneurship studies. The research objective is to apply the reflective structuration approach in the context of the Finnish university and polytechnics students´ narratives related to entrepreneurship. Totally 162 narratives were gathered with the role-play method during the years 2004– 2005 in the University of Vaasa and the Polytechnics of Seinäjoki. These narratives were then further packed in the form of model narrative. The constructed model narrative brought up the textual entrepreneurship as a continua- tion of the modern conceptualizations of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship was con- structed as an individual effort where the independency and competence are gained through labouring. This construction is a combination of a western modern entrepre- neurial narrative and the localized Finnish agrarian and labouring narrative from the previous generations. At the same time these narratives reproduced the modern western images about the gender connected to entrepreneurship. As an illustration the de/reconstruction of these entrepreneurial identities were also offered as part of these findings. Research offers theoretical implications for structurationist readings and piloted explicit tools for textual analysis to be further utilized and developed in later studies. The prac- tical implications are mainly related to entrepreneurship education for instance in the form of narrative pedagogy. Keywords entrepreneurship, structuration, semiotics, narrative studies, entrepreneurship education VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I think my interest for this scientific journey started in my years during my socia- lization into a working class citizen. I my view this offered me an inspiring source of socially and historically derived tensions and sensitivity towards the study top- ic. Father, I wish you were here right now to take part in these discussions, since they stayed hidden during our shared living years. Many inspiring teachers and lecturers opened up the “world of texts” during the studies of sociology, economics, linguistics, psychology, and pedagogy while studying in the University of Jyväskylä in the beginning of 1990´s. Great thanks to professors Tapio Aittola, Tuomas Takala and Kimmo Jokinen (just to name a few) for introducing me to scientific and critical thinking. Now afterwards, I have noticed that your lectures and workshops still live in my thinking. Because of your inspiration the study of texts became somewhat of a passion to me. I would also like to thank professor Henrik Gahmberg at the University of Vaasa for introducing the world of semiotics to me. Especially the discussions on narra- tive research opened up the interesting prospect of really modifying these ideas in my study. Along this study path my supervisor, professor Jukka Vesalainen, gave me valua- ble advice of how to proceed during the process. In addition, I am also grateful for the feedback I got from external reviewers, professors Daniel Hjorth (Copen- hagen Business School, Copenhagen) and Paula Kyrö (Aalto University, Helsin- ki) in the final stage of the study. With this help I could (hopefully) make the out- put of the study more readable for the different international audiences. And to you Krista, I would like to say my (more than) thankful words of being there during the process and sharing the marginal stories about the religious com- pulsions of Hegel, the single-minded idealism of Marx, the sicknesses of Nietzsche, the unknown anxieties of Jung, the restless tours of Michel Foucault, the selfish actions and views of the squint-eyed Sartre, the genuine mythologies of Barthes, the almost non-readable grammatologies of Derrida. And so on. I guess through these discussions the idea of the western science became transpa- rent bringing the reflectivity to the next level. In my opinion finding the “sub- texts” behind their glorious public texts was maybe the most interesting part of this study process. In Vaasa, 10.11.2010, Seppo Luoto IX FOREWORDS “Any feeling whatsoever, any perception whatsoever, any mental processes whatsoever, any consciousness whatsoever - past, future, or present; inter- nal or external; blatant or subtle, common or sublime, far or near; every consciousness - is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as: this is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.” Anattalakkhana Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya XXII “Fortunately I soon learned to separate theological from moral prejudices, and I gave up looking for the supernatural origin of the evil…this trans- formed my original problem into the following one: under what conditions did Man invent for himself those judgments of values, “Good” and “Evil”? And what intrinsic value do they possess in themselves?” Friedrich Nietzsche “What is found at the historical beginning of things is not the inviolable identity of their origin; it is the dissension of other things. It is disparity.” Michel Foucault “Qui dit homme, dit langage, et qui dit langage dit société” Claude Levi-Strauss “I had just read Saussure and as a result acquired the conviction that by treating the collective representations as sign-systems, one might hope to go further than the pious show of unmasking them and account in detail for the mystification which transforms petit-bourgeois culture into a universal na- ture” Roland Barthes “Once the channels and depressions