Research Seminar: Entrepreneurship as Transgressive Practice: Edgework and the Consumption of Risk in Entrepreneurial Ventures

Event Date: 29 October 2015

Location: SWD, Room 204,

Time: 13:30 – 15:30

Speaker: Professor Richard Harrison, University of Edinburgh

Title: Entrepreneurship as Transgressive Practice: Edgework and the Consumption of Risk in Entrepreneurial Ventures

Abstract:

Theories of entrepreneurship are predicated on the assumption of rational actors behaving rationally. This is archtypically the case with the theory of planned behaviour, but is also a flavour running through effectuation theory, the 'entrepreneurship as opportunity' literature, the entrepreneurship as a response to Knightian uncertainty debate, and most recently the neuro/cognitive foundations literature. Further, empirical treatments of risk in entrepreneurship research seek to debunk the so-called populist myth that entrepreneurs are risk takers, characterising them rather as risk managers and mitigators.

This paper takes a different position. Starting from an understanding of risk as the prospect of loss or harm in situations of (potential) danger and a view of entrepreneurship as that which challenges established orthodoxies, this paper sees entrepreneurship - like extreme action sports, high frequency bond trading and transgressive sex - as a form of edgework where the consumption of risk (however much it is mitigated or managed) is intrinsic to engaging in the activity. Drawing on the sociology of risk literature the paper draws out the implications of this perspective for our understanding of and research into entrepreneurial practice.

Published: 20 October 2015