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A Critical, Practice Theoretical Study of Entrepreneurship DOING PIRITTA PARKKARI DOING ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROMOTION A Critcal, Practce Theoretcal Study of Entrepreneurship Acta electronica Universitats Lapponiensis 262 Acta electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis 262 PIRITTA PARKKARI Doing Entrepreneurship Promotion: A Critical, Practice Theoretical Study of Entrepreneurship Academic dissertation to be publicly defended with the permission of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lapland in Auditorium 3 on 29 May 2019 at 12 noon Rovaniemi 2019 University of Lapland Faculty of Social Sciences Supervised by Adjunct Professor and University Lecturer Pikka-Maaria Laine, University of Lapland Professor Anu Valtonen, University of Lapland Reviewed by Professor Jarna Heinonen, University of Turku Professor Päivi Eriksson, University of Eastern Finland Opponent Professor Päivi Eriksson, University of Eastern Finland Copyright: Piritta Parkkari Copyright: Piritta Parkkari Layout: Taittotalo PrintOne Cover design: Elina Rissanen Layout: Taittotalo PrintOne Cover design: Elina Rissanen Acta electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis 262 ISSN 1796-6310 Acta Electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis 262 ISBN 978-952-337-153-8 ISBN 978-952-337-153-8 ISSN 1796-6310 Permanent address to the publication: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-337-153-8 Permanent address of publication: http://urn.f/URN:ISBN:978-952-337-153-8 Abstract Piritta Parkkari Doing Entrepreneurship Promotion: A Critical, Practice Teoretical Study of Entrepreneurship Rovaniemi: University of Lapland, 2019, 159 p. Acta Electronica Universitatis 262 Tesis: University of Lapland, Faculty of Social Sciences ISBN 978-952-337-153-8 ISSN 1796-6310 Entrepreneurship is a hot topic in the 2010s, with measures taken to encourage people to consider it as an option and to produce people with entrepreneurial mindsets. But what happens within organizations that promote entrepreneurship? Even though there seems to be a non-negotiable mandate to promote entrepreneurship, this study calls for critical scrutiny of how entrepreneurship promotion is being done. Tis study brings attention to practical accomplishment of entrepreneurship promotion, because promoting entrepreneurship has efects on what kind of entrepreneurship is seen as desirable and on the cultural images of entrepreneurship. Tis study contributes to entrepreneurship research through bringing together the practice theoretical and critical approaches to entrepreneurship. Te practice approach sees practices as consequential for social reality and it brings attention to how entrepreneurship gains meanings in and through routinized ways of doing and talking. Tis approach can be used to address how entrepreneurship is constructed. Te critical approach, on the other hand, questions dominant images and conceptualizations of entrepreneurship. It can be used to address what or who should be studied and to critically address what is constructed in and through the studied practices. Tis study urges to go beyond people labelled as entrepreneurs and onto ethnographically studying organizations that promote entrepreneurship. It reports the results of a three-year ethnographic study of Finnish student- and other volunteer-led Entrepreneurship Society organizations that promote entrepreneurship. It analyses the practices enacted within these organizations and what is constructed in and through these practices. Tis study discusses how promoting entrepreneurship serves to both reproduce and challenge images of entrepreneurship. Start-up entrepreneurship was constructed as the desired kind of entrepreneurship to be promoted within the 3 Parkkari: Doing Entrepreneurship Promotion studied organizations. As this happened, the stereotypical heroic and individualized images of entrepreneurship and team-based understandings of entrepreneurship were both constructed. Promoting entrepreneurship became understood as the pursuit of creating new companies and jobs, but also the pursuit of bringing people together and enhancing the entrepreneurial atmosphere. Tis study also discusses how promoting entrepreneurship contributes to cultural image of entrepreneurship as desirable. Whilst within the studied organization the mandate to promote entrepreneurship came from the needs of regional development, the informal network of Finnish Entrepreneurship Societies was constructed as a student-led social movement that works to inspire students towards start-up entrepreneurship. Working around the idea of entrepreneurship seemed to enable a sense of community and belonging, gaining pleasurable feelings, experiences and learning and, importantly, a sense of ‘doing’ and making a change in the world. Tis contributes to the lucrativeness of entrepreneurship. A belief in individual agency and the power of entrepreneurship to change the world also emerged. Te study argues that whilst promoting entrepreneurship risks over-emphasizing individual agency, it also enables bringing people together, which in turn might enable collective action. Keywords: critique, Critical Entrepreneurship Studies, entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship as Practice, entrepreneurship research, Entrepreneurship Societies, ethnography, practices, practice theory, students 4 Parkkari: Doing Entrepreneurship Promotion Tiivistelmä Piritta Parkkari Yrittäjyyden edistämisen tekeminen: kriittinen ja käytäntöteoreettinen tutkimus yrittäjyydestä. Rovaniemi: Lapin yliopisto 2019, 159 sivua Acta electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis 262 Väitöskirja: Lapin yliopisto, Yhteiskuntatieteiden tiedekunta ISBN 978-952-337-153-8 ISSN 1796-6310 Yrittäjyys on suosittu aihe 2010-luvulla. Ihmisiä kannustetaan harkitsemaan sitä vaihtoehtona, ja ihmisille pyritään luomaan yrittäjämäistä ajattelutapaa erilaisten toimien kautta. Mutta mitä tapahtuukaan yrittäjyyttä edistävissä organisaatioissa? Vaikka yrittäjyyden edistämiseen usein suhtaudutaan itsestään selvänä tavoitteena, tutkimus penää kriittistä tarkastelua ja se tuo huomion yrittäjyyden edistämisen käytännön toimiin. Tämä on tärkeää, koska yrittäjyyden edistäminen vaikuttaa siihen, millainen yrittäjyys nähdään haluttavana ja millainen kulttuurinen asema yrittäjyyden ilmiöllä on. Tutkimus tuo antinsa yrittäjyystutkimukseen yhdistämällä käytäntöteoreettisen ja kriittisen otteen. Käytäntöteoreettinen ote näkee, että käytännöt tuottavat sosiaa- lisen todellisuuden ja se tuo tutkimuksessa huomion vakiintuneisiin puhumisen ja tekemisen tapoihin. Sen avulla voidaan tarkastella, miten yrittäjyys rakentuu erilai- sissa käytännöissä. Kriittinen ote puolestaan kyseenalaistaa ja haastaa vallitsevia ym- märryksiä yrittäjyydestä. Sen avulla voidaan kriittisesti pohtia, mitä tai ketä voidaan yrittäjyystutkimuksessa empiirisesti tutkia sekä sitä, mitä tutkittavissa käytännöissä rakentuu. Tämä tutkimus kehottaa siirtämään huomion yrittäjiksi nimettyjen ihmisten toi- minnasta kohti yrittäjyyden edistämisen etnografsta tarkastelua. Tutkimus raportoi opiskelijoiden ja muiden vapaaehtoisten vetämissä suomalaisissa Entrepreneurship Society yrittäjyysyhteisöissä tehdyn kolmivuotisen etnografsen tutkimuksen tulok- set. Tutkimuksessa analysoitiin näiden yrittäjyysyhteisöjen käytäntöjä ja sitä, mitä niissä rakentui. Tutkimus esittää, että yrittäjyyteen liittyvät ymmärrykset sekä uusiintuvat että tulevat haastetuiksi yrittäjyyden edistämisessä. Tutkittujen organisaatioiden käytän- nöissä startup-yrittäjyydestä rakentui halutunlaista edistettävää yrittäjyyttä. Tähän liittyen rakentui sekä stereotyyppinen kuva sankarillisesta yksilöyrittäjästä että kuva 5 Parkkari: Doing Entrepreneurship Promotion tiimiperustaisesta yrittäjyydestä. Yrittäjyyden edistämisellä tavoiteltiin niin uusien yritysten ja työpaikkojen luomista kuin ihmisten yhteen tuomista sekä yrittäjäilma- piirin parantamista. Tutkimus esittää myös, että yrittäjyyden edistäminen ylläpitää kulttuurista kuvaa yrittäjyydestä haluttavana ilmiönä. Tutkimuksen kohdeorganisaatioissa yrittäjyyden edistäminen lähti aluekehittämisen tarpeista, mutta suomalaisten Entrepreneurship Society -yhteisöjen epävirallinen verkosto rakentui opiskelijavetoiseksi yhteiskun- nalliseksi liikkeeksi, joka inspiroi opiskelijoita startup-yrittäjyyteen. Yrittäjyyden ympärillä työskentely tuntuu mahdollistavan miellyttäviä kokemuksia, kuten yhtei- söllisyyden tunteen, uuden oppimista ja uusiin ihmisiin tutustumista sekä tunteen siitä, että ollaan tekemässä asioita ja muuttamassa maailmaa. Tämä tuottaa yrittä- jyydestä haluttavan ja houkuttelevan ilmiön. Yrittäjyys näyttäytyi tapana muuttaa maailmaa, mikä ylläpitää uskoa yksilön yrittäjämäiseen toimijuuteen. Yrittäjyyden edistäminen siis toisaalta saattaa ylikorostaa yksilön toimijuutta, mutta toisaalta myös mahdollistaa ihmisten tuomisen yhteen ja sitä kautta saattaa mahdollistaa kollektiivisen toiminnan. Asiasanat: etnografa, kritiikki, kriittinen yrittäjyystutkimus, käytännöt, käytäntöteo- ria, käytäntöteoreettinen yrittäjyystutkimus, kriittinen tutkimus, opiskelijat, yrittäjyys, yrittäjyystutkimus, yrittäjyysyhteisöt 6 Parkkari: Doing Entrepreneurship Promotion Acknowledgements When I said ‘yes’ to doing a PhD, I thought it wouldn’t be that much more difcult than doing a Master’s thesis. I also thought that the goal of doing it in four years is manageable. Well… well over fve years later I can say that I didn’t get it done in four years and that it was way more difcult than completing a Master’s thesis. Looking back, I don’t really understand how it took so long to put together this little book. Tis dissertation you are reading now is just the tip of the iceberg, the concrete
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