The social context plays a role in entrepreneurial activity: it shapes perceptions, evaluations and the recognition of opportunity. But one aspect of context is relationships, where it has been found that the search for status provides a stimulus that not only promotes businesses, but affects how they are run. An ethnographic approach was used to examine the activities of 60 rural entrepreneurs in the UK, and six cases are presented to demonstrate the operation of the production of prestige. Conspicuous production provides a heuristic explanatory variable of process and outcome, and enriches our understanding of the entrepreneurial process.
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