Cameroonian perspectives on entrepreneurship: discovering subcultural heterogeneity

Dave Valliere

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, 2018, vol. 12, issue 3, 258-277

Abstract: Purpose - This paper aims to explore cultural attitudes and beliefs about entrepreneurship in the southwestern region of Cameroon. This study also identifies the existence of subcultural variations with important implications for the development of entrepreneurial activities in Cameroon. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses the hybrid qualitative/quantitative Q methodology to survey and analyze a purposively diverse sample of individuals and thereby discover subcultural structures and patterns to the attitudes and beliefs that exist in Cameroonian culture. Findings - This study discovers three distinct subcultures that differ significantly in their attitudes and beliefs about entrepreneurship. These subcultures can neither be predicted from commonly used national measures of cultures, such as those of Hofstede, nor are they directly attributable to regional effects. Research limitations/implications - The author calls into question the continuing use of national culture as a construct in explaining and predicting entrepreneurial activities, through discovery of subcultures at odds with national measures. Further research should be undertaken to assess the prevalence within Cameroonian society of the three widely different subcultures identified here. Practical implications - This paper highlights the importance of incorporating subcultural variations in attitudes and beliefs (whether regional, tribal or other) in the development and implementation of public policies to affect national entrepreneurship. Originality/value - The paper applies a novel methodology to qualitatively explore the subjective variations in the meaning and value of entrepreneurship in Cameroonian society, and to quantitatively develop a structure or typology to these variations.

Keywords: Culture; Entrepreneurial intent; Q methodology; Subcultural heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:jecpps:jec-10-2017-0076

DOI: 10.1108/JEC-10-2017-0076

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy is currently edited by Prof Leo Dana and Andrea Caputo

More articles in Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().