Abstract
This study discusses stereotypes of entrepreneurship by looking at the overlapping areas of entrepreneurship, self-employment and professions. Professions are part of the category of self-employment and the study presents empirical findings drawn from a unique empirical dataset from Finland: a survey (N = 733) including freelance journalists, translators, interpreters and artists at the blurred boundaries between waged work and entrepreneurship. Findings reveal that the professions are clearly different and the manifestations of entrepreneurship vary, reflecting the work and the labor market situation within the profession. Life and work situations of liberal professions cannot be interpreted in simple black-and-white schemes of winners and losers. Instead, many different socioeconomic situations can be found ‘in between,’ which are driven by different social logics. For entrepreneurship research, the study opens up new avenues by taking us beyond the push-pull dichotomy, which over-simplifies the decision to enter self-employment. The term entrepreneurship is often used in an undifferentiated way, and it easily generates myths and stereotypes which are challenged by the study. A narrower and more realistic view shows that there are diverse agents under the flag of entrepreneurship, who are usually not regarded as core entrepreneurs although they exist in everyday life.
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Notes
Although the spheres of professions are becoming progressively commercialized, as Parsons (1939, see also Parsons 1968) said, there is a specific distinction of the professional agent: “The professions, it was said, enjoyed the kind of freedom, not so much because they were free from the control of an employer … but rather because … choice was not restricted and confined by economic pressure. The professional man, it has been said, does not work in order to be paid, he is paid in order that he may work” (Marshall 1939, 325).
The question was “How would you define the process of becoming an entrepreneur/self-employed/ freelancer/artist?” The response options were: a) It had already been on my mind for several years b) it had been on my mind for some months, and c) it was not really on my mind previously.
The question was “How did you prepare for becoming an entrepreneur/self-employed/freelancer/artist?” The response options were: a) I trained for the profession to be entrepreneur/self-employed/freelancer/artist, b) I built my earlier work career from the point of view of it, c) I did not prepare systematically but, when an alternative came, I considered it and made the decision, and d) I did not prepare systematically, mainly I drifted into it as a consequence of various situations and opportunities.
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The authors are grateful to the Finnish Academy of Sciences for financial Support and to two anonymous referees for providing various valuable points of criticism.
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Bögenhold, D., Heinonen, J. & Akola, E. Entrepreneurship and Independent Professionals: Social and Economic Logics. Int Adv Econ Res 20, 295–310 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-014-9474-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-014-9474-z