Browsing by Subject "family business"

The thesis examines how ethnic entrepreneurship is constructed and made sense of in the narrative accounts of nine adult children of small business owners. The issue is examined from four perspectives; first, through the research participants’ narrations of their parents’ routes to entrepreneurs and secondly, through the narratives of the personal experiences of growing up and taking part in the running of the family business. Thirdly, the interviewees’ constructions of their entrepreneurial work experiences are examined in a wider working life context. Fourth, the interviewees’ future visions in terms of work and possible entrepreneurial careers, are examined. The ethnic entrepreneur is examined as a social category and ethnic entrepreneurship as a symbolic space against which the research participants negotiate their own standing. Furthermore, an idea of the nonnormativity of children’s work and how it relates to a concept of a 'proper' childhood is applied. Furthermore, the concept of belonging is applied in examining the interviewees’ negotiations about their positions and their sense of belonging in relation to the ethnic entrepreneur position. The data consists of nine thematic interviews with adult children of immigrant entrepreneurs. In the analysis of the data, a loose narrative framework is applied. The results of the study show that in the past narratives, the ethnic entrepreneur appeared as occupying a vulnerable position and in the majority, the position was constructed as somewhat forced rather than freely chosen. The narratives of past participation in the family firm produced three themes, through which entrepreneurial work was made sense, namely learning skillfulness, helping the parent, and work as a marker of difference. The narratives about the entrepreneurial work in a wider working life context indicated that participation in the family firm was constructed as a temporary phase before heading into an individual educational and occupational career. The family firm and 'other jobs' were contrasted somewhat drastically. Lastly, the future narratives indicated that the interviewees either redefined their possible future entrepreneurial positions or strongly rejected and talked against an entrepreneurial future.