Knowledge Generation for Innovation in Ayurvedic Cosmetics MSMEs: Investigating Entrepreneur’s Cultural and Symbolic Capital

Abstract

This article addresses links between entrepreneurs’ cultural and symbolic capital and their practices of knowledge generation for innovation. Through an ethnographic study of four Ayurvedic cosmetics manufacturing MSMEs in Mumbai, we argue that innovation in cosmetics MSMEs is the result of conversion of cultural capital into symbolic capital that in turn converts into economic capital. The study shows that Ayurveda knowledge resides in the entrepreneur’s family tradition and mostly transfers in a tacit form. The entrepreneurs’ acquisition of symbolic capital intertwines with the discourse of ‘sustainable development’, which makes ‘natural’ fashionable and ‘traditional’ knowledge prestigious. Within this discourse, Ayurveda knowledge acquires symbolic value which makes entrepreneurs’ cultural knowledge valuable and legitimate. The analyses of representative cases show how cultural capital and symbolic capital impact acquisition of knowledge in ways that facilitate entrepreneurs to attain legitimacy through innovations. We argue that appropriation of different forms of capital by entrepreneurs reinforces the beauty field’s normative structure which in turn facilitates knowledge generation for innovation in cosmetics MSMEs.