The Fairytale of the Successful Entrepreneur: Reasons and Remedies for the Prevalent Ideology of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs are modern heroes. What explains their extraordinary popularity? We argue that there are no measurable success factors that predict entrepreneurial mastery. Instead, it is the goal of upholding the entrepreneurial ideology that ensures that
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Ending Story: Defining A the Successful Entrepreneur Entrepreneurs are occupying an important role in our societies. They are heroes who bravely fight for the economy’s growth. In spite of many stories about brilliant entrepreneurs that we daily read in the press, it does not seem easy to define what it is that makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur. As Cole (1969, p. 17), a pioneer of entrepreneurship research, observed: “[F]or ten years we ran a research centre in entrepreneurial history, for ten years we tried to define the entrepreneur. We never succeeded”. Fifty years later, we still encounter difficulties when trying to
F. H. Gerpott WHU—Otto Beisheim School of Management, Düsseldorf, Germany e-mail: [email protected] A. Kieser (*) University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2020 A. Örtenblad (ed.), Against Entrepreneurship, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47937-4_8
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find out what such different characters as Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, Sam Walton, founder of Walmart or Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA, all successful entrepreneurs, have in common to get united under the label “successful entrepreneur” or “charismatic entrepreneur” (Gerpott and Kieser 2017). In light of these ambiguous definitions, one is inclined to take refuge to a pragmatic solution like the one offered by Shaver and Scott (1991, p. 24) who suggested that “entrepreneurship is like obscenity: Nobody agrees what it is, but we all know it when we see it”. Relatedly, Jones and Spicer (2009, p. 37) describe the entrepreneur as a target of projection, “an empty signifier, an open space or ‘lack’ whose operative function is not to ‘exist’ in the usual sense but to structure phantasmic attachment”. As Jones and Spicer (2009, p. 55) conclude, “they [the entrepreneurs] are not valued because they ‘really’ contribute value to economic activity. Rather, the entrepreneur is one of the fantasies of economic discourse, a fantasy which we might have begun to unmask”. Some scholars have indeed dared to unmask the secret of the successful entrepreneur by suggesting “that parts of this venturing sphere are fundamentally contingent, the possibilities arbitrary, and the guiding logic can be that of dumb luck and surprising fortune” (Görling and Rehn 2008, p. 94). Yet, many people would find it extremely difficult to accept that “Bill Gates is just an ordinary human being, wrought with his perfectly normal and human neuroticism” (Jones and Spicer 2009, p. 38). Instead, the public elevates entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates “to heroic status as if there is something unique to his psyche which is the ultimate cause of his economic successes” (Jones and Spicer 2009, p. 39). Accordingly, entrepreneurship scholars continue to search for psychological traits, or genetic dispositions—the “unique to the entrepreneur’s psyche”—which scientifically justifies elevating entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates to a status different from the status of ordinary mortals. Similarly, politic
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