The Impact of Culture on Entrepreneural Activity
Does culture impact on entrepreneural activity?
The influence of national culture on entrepreneurship is of considerable theoretical and practical value
‘Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes one group of people from another’ Hofstede (1980) Culture is always a collective pheniomenion, becauce it is derived from one’s social environment and partly shared with people who live or lived within the same social environment, which is where it is learned.
Culture indeed does have an impact on entrepreneural activity and some cultures encourage entrepreneurship while some other cultures hinder entrepreneurship, though it is argued that there are other factors to be considered like a favourable environment which combines social , political and educational attributes which promote entrepreneural activity For example the culture of USA is considered to be the most entrepreneural in the world. Entrepreneurship is ingrained in the fabric of North American culture, it is taught in school from kindergarten and has been integrated into college and university curricula. It is promoted through personal success human interest stories in the media and through various outreach and training programmes and as a career, entrepreneurship is espouded early and reinforced regularly through out ones life. On the other hand the chineese…..
Hofstede undertook an extensive cross cultural study, using questionare data from eighty thousand IBM employers in sixtysix countries across seven occupations and established four dimensions of national cultures.
1. Individualism vs collectivism: This is the degree to which people prefer to act as individusals rather than groups. Individualistic societies are loosely knit social frameworks in which people primaily operate as individuals or in immediate families; here, the task prevails over relationships. Collectivist societies are composed of tight networks in which people operate as members of in-groups and outgroups,
The influence of national culture on entrepreneurship is of considerable theoretical and practical value
‘Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes one group of people from another’ Hofstede (1980) Culture is always a collective pheniomenion, becauce it is derived from one’s social environment and partly shared with people who live or lived within the same social environment, which is where it is learned.
Culture indeed does have an impact on entrepreneural activity and some cultures encourage entrepreneurship while some other cultures hinder entrepreneurship, though it is argued that there are other factors to be considered like a favourable environment which combines social , political and educational attributes which promote entrepreneural activity For example the culture of USA is considered to be the most entrepreneural in the world. Entrepreneurship is ingrained in the fabric of North American culture, it is taught in school from kindergarten and has been integrated into college and university curricula. It is promoted through personal success human interest stories in the media and through various outreach and training programmes and as a career, entrepreneurship is espouded early and reinforced regularly through out ones life. On the other hand the chineese…..
Hofstede undertook an extensive cross cultural study, using questionare data from eighty thousand IBM employers in sixtysix countries across seven occupations and established four dimensions of national cultures.
1. Individualism vs collectivism: This is the degree to which people prefer to act as individusals rather than groups. Individualistic societies are loosely knit social frameworks in which people primaily operate as individuals or in immediate families; here, the task prevails over relationships. Collectivist societies are composed of tight networks in which people operate as members of in-groups and outgroups,
Bibliography: Burns, P. (2001) Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave Macmillian.