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Exploring Agency in Entrepreneurship Development – a Narrative Approach

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Exploring Agency in Entrepreneurship Development – a Narrative Approach EXPLORING AGENCY IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT – A NARRATIVE APPROACH Kirsi Peura TURUN YLIOPISTON JULKAISUJA – ANNALES UNIVERSITATIS TURKUENSIS Sarja - ser. E osa - tom. 13 | Oeconomica | Turku 2017 University of Turku Turku School of Economics Department of Management and Entrepreneurship Subject - Entrepreneurship Doctoral Programme of Turku School of Economics Supervised by Dr. Ulla Hytti University of Turku Finland Reviewed by Professor David Rae Professor Friederike Welter University of Bishop Grosseteste University of Siegen UK Germany Opponent Professor David Rae University of Bishop Grosseteste UK The originality of this thesis has been checked in accordance with the University of Turku quality assurance system using the Turnitin OriginalityCheck service. ISBN 978-951-29-6726-1 (PRINT) ISBN 978-951-29-6727-8 (PDF) ISSN 2343-3159 (Painettu/Print) ISSN 2343-3167 (Verkkojulkaisu/Online) Painosalama Oy - Turku, Finland 2017 ABSTRACT The thesis builds on a gap in research by examining personal agency among entre- preneurship development professionals, which is currently an under-researched and under-theorized area in the field of entrepreneurship. While the focus on extant research is on professions and a function-based view of entrepreneurship develop- ment, it downplays the role of subjectivity and rarely uses individuals as a unit of analysis. To address this issue, this study uses an open interviewing method to explore subjectively perceived maneuver spaces, limitations, and opportunities for agency among entrepreneurship development professionals. The term agency is used in this study to refer to the capacity of individuals to act intentionally and according to plan in a biographical mode. The study is influenced by an epistemol- ogy of both constructionism and social constructionism, and an interpretive theo- retical perspective. It employs narrative methodology to study agency as enacted and represented in and through language, and is concerned with how meaning is constructed. In the study, narratives are perceived as one form of self-interpreta- tion, and the narrative approach has been used as a tool to explore the agents’ own configurations of concern in entrepreneurship development and how they are fac- tored into sensemaking and assuming agentic positions in entrepreneurship devel- opment. The research question is, how do participant-narrators in this study under- stand and make meaning of agency in entrepreneurship development? The research data consists of personal narratives from four local development agents in a post- transitional country, Croatia, and the data was collected from each study partici- pant in two interview sessions, in 2012 and 2014. The study participants present some of the most far-reaching efforts to enhance startups, entrepreneurial behav- ior, and the competitiveness of SMEs through providing appropriate training and education (university and center for entrepreneurship), facilities and space (tech- nology park), and capital (commercial bank) to nascent and active entrepreneurs. In the narrative presentation and analysis of the research data, the study has sepa- rated the “telling” (the process) and the “told” (product), and has positioned the researcher in the process. Data is presented in the form of reconstructed narratives. In the analysis, what has been regarded as agentive action in this talk has been found both in the content and form of narrative sensemaking. Tensions and breaches indicated in the narrative telling have acted as an analytical tool to reflect how agency is constructed. The results indicate that in the narrative telling agency is framed by imperatives related to the narrators’ expertise and knowledge, profes- sionalism and procedural mastery, and finally, also moral and intrinsic motives. The findings are that the different elements that come into play to both delineate and, conversely, to provide opportunities for agentic behavior are found in the in- tersections of the cognitive, behavioral, and conative perspectives. The main im- plication for the theory and research is that the concept of agency offers a fruitful way to bridge different—new as well as existing, but previously detached—per- spectives on entrepreneurship developers, thereby providing potentially better and richer ways to understand entrepreneurship development work. This study pro- poses that it is not sufficient to perceive and examine agency and agentic outcomes in entrepreneurship development only through the analysis of stereotyped models and action outcomes. Thus, explicit and precise rules for entrepreneurship devel- opment practice may be hard to materialize as intended because of the human ele- ments; development work necessarily involve the individual involvement and in- terpretation. The discussion of the results also advances our understanding around the agency of entrepreneurship developers and the ways it can impact entrepre- neurship development in given contexts. Overall, the thesis contributes to topical discussions in entrepreneurship development with novel theoretical, methodolog- ical, and empirical results, and contributes to the extant interpretive literature on entrepreneurship development. Key words: Agency, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship development, narrative research TIIVISTELMÄ Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tutkia yrittäjyyden edistämisen parissa toimi- vien ammattilaisten toimijuutta. Toimijuus on tutkimusalueena jäänyt vähäiselle huomiolle yrittäjyyden tutkimuksessa ja siihen liittyvä teoreettinen keskustelu on vielä alikehittynyttä. Aikaisemmassa tutkimuksessa valitut lähestymistavat ovat suosineet ammattiryhmittäin tai toimintopohjaisesti tehtyä tarkastelua, mikä on häivyttänyt yksilöiden subjektiivisuuden roolia yrittäjyyden edistämisen työssä. Aikaisempi tutkimus ei myöskään ei laajalti käyttänyt yksilöitä tutkimuksen ana- lyysin yksikkönä kuten tässä tutkimuksessa on tehty. Näiden puutteiden korjaa- miseksi tässä tutkimuksessa hyödynnetään avoimia haastatteluja subjektiivisesti hahmotettujen toimijuuden tilojen, rajojen ja mahdollisuuksien tutkimiseksi. Toi- mijuudella tarkoitetaan tässä tutkimuksessa kerronnallisesti tuotettua kuvaa yksi- lön kyvystä ja mahdollisuuksista toimia suunnitelmallisesti sekä tavoitteellisesti. Tutkimus edustaa tulkitsevaa laadullista tutkimusta, ja se on saanut vaikutteita sekä konstruktionismista että sosiaalisesta konstruktionismista. Tutkimus hyödyn- tää narratiivista metodologiaa toimijuuden tarkastelemiseksi sekä kielessä että kie- len kautta, ja se kohdentuu tarkastelemaan kielen kautta rakentuneita yksityisiä merkityksenantoja. Narratiiveja käsitellään tutkimuksessa yksilön tapana tulkita omaa toimintaansa, ja narratiivisen lähestymistavan avulla tutkimuksessa tarkas- tellaan sitä, minkä yrittäjyyden edistämisen teemojen kautta toimijat rakentavat omaa kerrontaansa ja kuinka heidän oma toimijuutensa näkyy tässä kerronnassa. Tutkimuksen tutkimuskysymys on: kuinka tutkimuksen osallistujat eli kertojat ymmärtävät ja merkityksellistävät toimijuutta yrittäjyyden edistämisessä? Sekä tutkimuksen aineiston esittämistapa että sen analyysi tukeutuvat narratiiviseen lä- hestymistapaan. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu neljästä henkilökohtaisesta kerto- muksesta, neljältä yrittäjyyden edistämisen parissa toimivalta ammattilaiselta. Ai- neisto on kerätty kahden haastattelukierroksen aikana vuosina 2012 ja 2014, joiden pohjalta tutkija on uudelleen rakentanut haastatteluista yksilölliset kertomukset. Tutkimuksen konteksti on Kroatia, siirtymätalouden jälkeisessä vaiheessa oleva maa. Tutkimuksen osallistujat edustavat erilaisia yrittäjyyden edistämisen keinoja, joilla on mahdollista tukea uuden yritystoiminnan syntymistä, yrittäjämäistä toi- mintaa sekä pk-yrityssektorin kilpailukykyä; opetus ja koulutus (yliopisto ja yrit- täjyyskeskus), yrittäjien toimitilat (tiedepuisto) sekä rahoitus (pankki). Tutkimus- raportissa on erotettu ”kerronta” (aineiston muodostuksen prosessi) sekä ”ker- rottu” (kerronnan tuote) toisistaan sekä asemoitu tutkijan rooli tässä prosessissa. Toimijuutta on aineiston analyysissä lähestytty tarkastelemalla sekä kerronnan si- sältöä että sen muotoa. Kerronnassa ilmenneitä jännitteitä ja murtumia on lisäksi käytetty analyyttisenä työkaluna toimijuuden rajojen löytämiseksi. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että kerrontaa kehystävät erilaiset näkökulmat kuten asiantun- tijuus ja yrittäjyyteen liittyvä tieto, professionalismi ja yrittäjyyden edistämisen erilaisiin menettelytapoihin liittyvä osaaminen sekä moraaliset ja sisäsyntyiset mo- tiivit työlle. Näitä näkökulmia kerronnassa heijastellaan sekä itseen että muihin. Tutkimuksen löydöksenä täten on, että toimijuuden subjektiiviseen kerronnalli- seen rakentamiseen yrittäjyyden edistämisessä vaikuttavat rajaavat ja toisaalta toi- mijuutta mahdollistavat näkökulmat liittyvät tiedon käsittelyyn, toimintaan sekä toiminnan konatiivisiin puoliin. Tutkimuksen löydösten seuraus toimijuuden tar- kastelun kautta on se, että toimijuuden käsite tarjoaa aikaisempaa tutkimusta he- delmällisemmän tavan tarkastella yhdessä sellaisia yrittäjyyden edistämisen liitty- viä näkökulmia, jotka aiempi tutkimus on joko pitänyt erillään tai ei ole huomioi- nut ollenkaan. Nämä havainnot avaavat uusia tarkastelun tasoja yrittäjyyden edis- tämisen työhön kyseenalaistaen aikaisempien, stereotyyppistenkin kuvausten hyö- dyllisyyden yrittäjyyden edistämisen työn monitasoisuuden ymmärtämisessä. Yk- silön subjektiivisella, inhimillisellä tulkinnalla ja osallistumisella on täten oma roolinsa
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