Abstract
‘Context matters’ (Boettke and Coyne, 2009) for entrepreneurship because it helps us to understand why, how, where and when entrepreneurship happens and who becomes an entrepreneur. Context is both an asset and a liability, as it not only sets boundaries for actions but also provides opportunities for entrepreneurship. Moreover, relations between contexts and entrepreneurship are complex with contexts impacting on entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurs having the agency to influence contexts. So far, entrepreneurship research has emphasized the social and business contexts, neglecting households, families and communities, and societal and institutional contexts are of importance. Recently, there has been an growing interest in the role of context for entrepreneurship (Welter, 2011; Wright, 2012; Zahra and Wright, 2011).
Therefore, this edited volume is a timely publication, adding interesting examples of contexts and insights to the current debate. The book consists of 17 chapters, and its contributors as well as the editors have some form of association with VU University Amsterdam, where entrepreneurship research has context as a common theme. Thus, all the contributors study entrepreneurship as a context-bound phenomenon, although I found the link to context in some of the chapters to be rather artificial and tentative. The editors, Marco van Gelderen and Enno Masurel, are aware of this, indicating in their introduction (Chapter 1) that despite a common theme, their book is at the same time highly heterogeneous. The reader is introduced to the manifold dimensions and facets of context and its dynamic nature and emphasize the role that agency plays in relation is introduced to context, before turning to briefly touch upon methodological challenges and to provide an overview of the diversity of contexts studied in the 16 remaining chapters. The introductory part of the volume continues with a chapter on the ethos and ethics of entrepreneurship, which provides some thought-provoking ideas as to the embeddedness of entrepreneurial behaviour in ethical boundaries.
The remainder of the volume is organized in five parts: Part II includes two chapters which study the micro-context of entrepreneurs. Chapter 3 provides an interesting example of an original method to contextualize, which allows a simultaneous study of time, history and current features of context, by rhythm-analyzing a venture creation process based on the book Republic of Tea, while Chapter 4 attempts to put entrepreneurship education into context. In Part III three chapters provide examples of how entrepreneurs engage with contexts thus, emphasizing the agency theme. Chapter 5 discusses entrepreneurship in an administered market, illustrating how entrepreneurs in healthcare mobilize stakeholders and create legitimacy. Chapter 6 suggests a framework for environmentally sustainable design, while Chapter 7 discusses environmentally responsible entrepreneurship in the catering sector, drawing on the example of food waste. Part IV contains two chapters which discuss entrepreneurship as context, but both chapters also touch upon entrepreneurial agency. Chapter 8 uses the example of Muslim businesswomen to illustrate how they negotiate different contexts, namely religion, gender and ethnicity thus, highlighting again the agency of entrepreneurs in dealing with context. Chapter 9 suggests a different approach to studying social capital and networks, based on the example of a Chinese entrepreneur. In Part V, five chapters focus on wider contextual influences, covering a range of fascinating themes such as the historical, regional, family and religious influences on entrepreneurship (Chapter 10), an in-depth case study of Chinese Indonesian entrepreneurship (Chapter 11), reverse migration of entrepreneurs (Chapter 12) and Mennonite entrepreneurs in Central America (Chapter 13), as well as a literature-based overview on entrepreneurship and culture (Chapter 14). Part VI provides three chapters that each describe different and novel contexts for entrepreneurship: Chapter 15 with a case study on the ‘new and colourful’ Dutch entrepreneurship scene, Chapter 16 with some empirical evidence on dance teachers, and Chapter 17 with an overview of entrepreneurship and science-based venturing, based on the case of vaccine development.
All in all, I enjoyed reading the book. Several of the chapters add deep insights into novel and unusual contexts, showing us the value of context-rich descriptions and analyses. Although context does not play an explicit role in all the chapters, I still consider the wide-ranging approach to entrepreneurship in contexts presented in this book as one of its major strengths. I believe that the volume can contribute to our understanding of which contexts may be important, as well as adding ideas on how to contextualise entrepreneurship because of the variety of themes discussed in the different chapters. The different contributions clearly show the multiplicity and complexity of contexts in which entrepreneurship takes place, indicating how entrepreneurs interact with their contexts and providing rich and dense empirical material. I expect the book to contribute to the current entrepreneurship debate, especially through emphasising the diversity of contexts. For example, in relation to contexts and agency, there is much scope for future research which could explore entrepreneurial agency and its role in empowering individuals and changing contexts over time. Overall, this edited volume should find a wide audience of both researchers and practitioners, as it is an enjoyable presentation of the historical and contemporary aspects of entrepreneurship in contexts on various levels.