Entrepreneurship by design: the construction of meanings and markets for cultural craft goods

ABSTRACT

This paper posits that design is a crucial material manifestation of the storytelling by cultural entrepreneurs and that it enables cultural entrepreneurs to create new markets through meaning-making and value construction. In addressing the issue of how markets for cultural and aesthetic goods are created despite the opposing production logics of the two different realms of craft/culture and rational markets, it examines the case of craft-based retailers in India to propose that design functions as a narrative device to confer meaning on unfamiliar and under-appreciated (with respect to consumers) culturally specific craft objects, thus constructing their economic value. Through its emphasis on design as meaning-making, this paper makes contributions to the literatures on cultural entrepreneurship, markets, meaning and value.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural entrepreneurship
• storytelling
• design
• markets
• creative industries

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Denoting ‘design’ as ‘discourse’ is not at odds with the way previous scholars have defined discourse in the organisational context – not limited strictly to text, but also events, practices and objects that aid communication (see Phillips, Lawrence, & Hardy, 2004; Phillips & Oswick, 2012) – but is also particularly pertinent given the semantic and linguistic overtones commonly used in describing and defining design (consider Postrel, 2003, especially as quoted below; and Sudjic, 2009).

2. ‘It is my claim that as soon as we have completed the boycott of foreign cloth we shall have evolved so far that we shall necessarily give up the present absurdities and remodel national life in keeping with the ideal of simplicity and domesticity implanted in the bosom of the masses. […] such a transformation can come only after the complete success of the spinning wheel in India.’ Mohandas Gandhi, Young India, 29 June 1921. See also Lisa Trivedi’s characterisation of ‘khadi’ as not merely a material object, but also a concept and discursive symbol of the Indian nation (Trivedi, 2007).

3. ‘The primary object of developing small industries in rural areas is to extend work opportunities, raise incomes and standard of living and to bring about a more balanced and integrated rural economy. Inevitably, in rural areas, the traditional industries have to be given immediate consideration.’ Planning Commission, ‘Second Five-Year Plan’ (1956). See also Roy (1993).

4. It is worth emphasising that the term ‘ethnic’ is used very differently in India, relative to the USA or other Western countries (see, for example, Mears, 2010); rather than referring to a subgroup of populations, the term is typically used to denote tradition(al items). For more details about this cultural concept, see Tarlo (1996, pp. 284–317).

5. An exception to this would be a situation where some crafts were re-categorised and valorised as art by an entrepreneurial entity, which has indeed happened to some crafts in other countries (e.g., basket-weaving in Japan has been elevated to a form of fine art).