From admiration to abhorrence: the contentious appeal of entrepreneurship across Europe

Abstract

Although entrepreneurship seems to offer a universal economic solution, there are some doubts about whether it is universally attractive. We argue that entrepreneurship is a socially constructed concept and consequently the meanings, and hence the appeal, of the enterprise will vary internationally. We argue that how entrepreneurship is understood affects how attractive it seems. Accordingly, we investigated the meanings of entrepreneurship by analysing a range of metaphors of entrepreneurship gathered from schools across Europe. We found that both the meaning and understandings of the practices vary considerably. For most, the concept of entrepreneurship as an engine of the economy is attractive, but for some, the practices of entrepreneurs were considerably less appealing. We find links between national socio-economic contexts and attractiveness. We argue that culture and context seem to influence the social constructions of entrepreneurship and hence the attractiveness of entrepreneurial options. We also find that the pedagogical national narratives of the entrepreneur stand in dynamic tension with the performative national processes of entrepreneurship.

Keywords:

• culture
• entrepreneurship
• metaphor
• social construction
• international
• appeal

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge our invisible friends, the reviewers. Without their critiques, this paper would be much less well argued, and without their advice, it would be much less robust. Their challenges and their insights have made this a much better paper. So, although they must remain invisible, we thank them for sharing their expertise.

Very special thanks are due to our colleagues and fellow researchers on the EUROPE project, with whom it was an education, an honour and a delight to collaborate – Project Leader and all-round mentor Joseph Hassid from the University of Pireaus, and Kostas Katsogiannos; Skevos Evripidou and Doria Panayidou from the University of Cyprus; Naomi Birdthistle, Briga Hynes and Patricia Fleming from the University of Limerick; Enzo Pontarollo, Laura Solimene and Francesca Fugazzi from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan; Hans Moerel and Jacques Knops from the Radboud University of Nijmegen; W. Wiszniewski, B. Wyznikiewicz and W. Kirejczyk, from the Warsaw College of Economics; Nigel Culkin, Keith Randle and Julie Gregory from the University of Hertfordshire. Julie Gregory's extensive qualitative data in particular have formed a very helpful resource for this transnational study.

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