Developing craft practice within and between workshops: an inter-generational comparative study

This article forms part of a larger study examining how contemporary designer-makers are helping to develop the next generation, through apprenticeships, shorter internships and other forms of engagement. It is a collaborative project, involving an established furniture designer-craftsman and an academic researcher and educator with interests in craft business organisation, environmentally sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship. Our article responds to the 2017 Making Futures conference theme: the role of studios and workshops as learning environments and/or modes of learning, which can encourage independence, personal responsibility and agency. It reports on an empirical study that compares and contrasts the experiences of practitioners who have been active over the last six decades. We focus on two domains of craft production, ceramics and furniture-making, but the analysis includes references to similar learning processes in other domains of craft practice. The article takes the form of parallel narratives, based on interviews with two practitioners who established their own workshops, along with two of their former apprentices

Evaluating enterprise policy interventions in Africa: a critical review of Ghanaian small business support services

Enterprise policies play a central role in economic development across Africa, but more effective, evidence-based policy evaluation is required to inform future interventions. The paper aims to: (i) contribute to filling this gap; (ii) develop more rigorous and appropriate evaluation methodologies. It examines the issues through an empirical study into non-use of small business support services in Ghana. Survey evidence from 253 owner-managers was complemented by interviews with owner-managers and service providers. It concludes that policy evaluation in Sub-Saharan Africa would benefit from multi-method approaches to address the lack of official small firm datasets and facilitate more in-depth understanding

Individual Values and SME Environmental Engagement

We study the values on which managers of small and medium-sized enterprises draw when constructing their personal and organizational-level engagement with environmental issues, particularly climate change. Values play an important mediating role in business environmental engagement but relatively little research has been conducted on individual values in smaller organizations. Using the Schwartz Value System (SVS) as a framework for a qualitative analysis, we identify four ‘ideal-types’ of SME managers and provide rich descriptions of the ways in which values shape their constructions of environmental engagement. In contrast to previous research, which is framed around a binary divide between self-enhancing and self-transcending values, our typology distinguishes between individuals drawing primarily on Power or on Achievement values, and indicates how a combination of Achievement and Benevolence values is particularly significant in shaping environmental engagement. This demonstrates the theoretical usefulness of focusing on a complete range of values. Implications for policy and practice are discussed

Book review of Nicolopoulou et al. (eds) (2016) <i>Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation</i>

This is a book review of the following volume: Katerina Nicolopoulou, Mine Karatas-Ozkan, Frank Janssen, and John M Jermier (eds), Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation. Abingdon and New York, NY: Routledge, 2016; 400 pp, £110.00 (hbk), ISBN 978-1-138-81266-6

Enterprise education for small artisanal businesses: a case study of Sokoban Wood Village, Ghana

This chapter reports on a recent educational initiative involving academics from Ghanaian universities and members of an informal sector community of woodworking artisans. This pilot project examined how social and technological innovations, including open educational resources (OERs) might be used to create new learning experiences that were capable of addressing the artisans’ context-specific enterprise development needs. The concluding discussion identifies a number of practical lessons from the project. These findings are related to current debates regarding the potential role of education and training interventions in addressing the persistent policy challenge of transitioning enterprises to a more formal basis, and of promoting their growth and resilience

Insider perspectives on growth: implications for a non-dichotomous understanding of ‘sustainable’ and conventional entrepreneurship

The aim of this paper is to offer an alternative to a priori theorising in research on firm-level growth and environmental sustainability. We outline an approach that combines Shotter’s (2006) phenomenology with post-hoc application of the Bourdieusian concepts of habitus, practices and social capital. This is illustrated empirically through a study conducted with a small group of Finnish entrepreneurs, which examines their lived experience of growth alongside its practical application in their ventures. The entrepreneurs’ responses reveal holistic perspectives on growth that extend beyond the economic to incorporate personal commitments to norms of collectivity and well-being for themselves and others. The paper offers an exploratory but empirically-grounded approach, arguing that a combination of insiders’ perspectives and attention to the social embedding of economic activity challenge the dichotomous distinctions between sustainable and conventional entrepreneurship and reveal a degree of commonality that would not be evident via conventional categorisations on the basis of features such as business model type

Entrepreneurial social responsibility: scoping the territory

In this chapter scope the relationship between entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Both entrepreneurship and CSR have attracted increased interest in the early 21st century and been positioned as offering solutions to economic, social and environmental challenges. Previous attempts to determine causal influence between the two concepts have been inconclusive. We explicate the difficult to define concepts of entrepreneurship and CSR by focusing on entrepreneurial process and positive social change in particular. We identify three distinct approaches to this relationship: ‘mainstream’, ‘counter-cultural / critical’ and ‘reformist’ and locate our contribution in relation to these streams of ideas. Building on the CSR definition of Aguilera et al. (2007), we define Entrepreneurial Social Responsibility (‘ESR’) as the dynamic consideration of, and response to, issues beyond the narrow economic, technical and legal requirements of the firm to accomplish social and environmental benefits along with traditional economic gains. We argue that the territory of ESR can best be explored through the use of a multi-level analysis approach to researching the entrepreneurial process. ESR is important both conceptually and in policy terms and is an advancement because it occupies an intellectual space neither fully revealed nor addressed in existing CSR or entrepreneurship research. In moving towards a response to the research question: In what circumstances is positive social contribution an outcome of the entrepreneurial process?, we present a multi-level conceptual model of ESR. We enhance the CSR field by integrating a dynamic approach into the concept, and enhance the entrepreneurship field by opening up to more systematic study the social and environmental qualities of a social phenomenon that is often interpreted within an exclusively economic and instrumental frame of reference

Historical perspectives on the evolution and growth dynamics of social enterprises: a comparative case analysis

Objectives: This working paper presents a case-based examination of the growth process in social enterprises. Its starting-point is that existing knowledge on social enterprises is lacking in historical perspective, and that insufficient attention has been paid to the distinctive long-term growth dynamics of this organisational form. The paper explores influences on the growth process and relates its initial findings to current research and policy debates. Prior work: The case studies presented in this paper are informed by three core literatures: (1) entrepreneurial growth dynamics; (2) contemporary and historical studies of social enterprises; (3) corporate social responsibility. Approach: The paper is based on a comparative case analysis of three social enterprises located in the United Kingdom. The study traces the unfolding relationship between economic and social imperatives in their pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunity, the bundle of resources and capabilities that each social enterprise develops, its changing network relationships, and outcomes identified at an organisational level. Results: The case studies indicate distinct periods in the life of each organisation, and suggest how these patterns might be explained with reference to the literature. An initial cross-case comparison, structured around the concepts discussed previously, is used to identify common themes. Implications: The case study narratives and initial analysis suggest a number of issues relevant to researchers and policy-makers. The authors call for more historically-grounded research on social enterprises. The case material is exploratory, but indicates some ways in which the scope of future studies might be broadened to address longer-term interactions and a wider range of actors. Value: Social enterprises have sometimes been treated as an unproblematic and relatively short-term panacea to address ingrained social problems. The paper reinforces the call for social enterprises to be studied from a more historically-informed perspective that examines the longer-term implications of their continued growth

Emerging models of environmentally sustainable enterprise: a comparative study of low-energy housing retrofit organisations in the UK and France

Objectives: This paper examines emerging models that are being adopted by organisations engaged in the low carbon transition, with a particular focus on the role played by social enterprises. It presents a case-based comparison of recent efforts by industry actors in the housing retrofit supply chain to deliver low-energy retrofits (or refurbishments) of existing housing stocks in the UK and France. Prior Work: The study adopts a multi-disciplinary approach which makes connections between three broad strands of research: (1); energy policy, with a focus on energy efficiency in buildings (e.g. Fawcett and Mayne 2012); (2) social and sustainable enterprise (e.g. Blundel et al. 2013, Gibbs and O’Neill 2012); (3) socio-technical transitions (e.g. Geels and Kemp 2006; Smith 2007, Killip 2013). Approach: The issues are examined through a comparative study of the low-energy housing retrofit policy environment and of current organisational structures and practices in the building industries of the UK and France. Industry responses to recent policy signals are explored in case materials that are based around reviews of published evidence and a series of semi-structured interviews with designers and contractors who have direct experience of innovative, low-energy refurbishment projects in each country. Results: The case study evidence suggest that while the two countries have comparable long-term policy goals for CO2 emissions reduction, there are important organisational differences displayed in the more immediate initiatives being undertaken by industry actors involved in delivering retrofitting of the housing stock. The discussion section indicates possible explanations for these differences and highlights issues requiring further investigation. Implications: The transition towards a more environmental sustainable residential housing depends largely on social, as opposed to technological, innovation. Policy-makers need to address specific organisational constraints, including the longstanding fragmentation evident in this part of the UK building industry. The cases suggest that there is considerable scope for reconfiguring traditional networks and for giving greater emphasis to collaborative arrangements involving private sector firms, social and community based enterprise. Value: The study provides new empirical insights into the organisational dimensions of an important sustainability transition. It also makes a contribution to theoretical development by combining insights from several distinct disciplines, and by applying concepts from energy research, organisational studies, social entrepreneurship and socio-technical transitions to recent development in the UK and French building industries. It also identifies several implications for future research policy and practice