Cultural Diversity of Entrepreneurship

Cultural diversity encompasses a multitude of sub cultures or societies. It consists of elements

such as religion, language, age, gender, family, sexual orientation, and ethnicity and social status.
In contemporary societies, the emerging trend of entrepreneurship is impacted by key issues in
cultural diversity.

Ethnicity and Entrepreneurship

Ethnicity refers to a particular group or social group with common, distinguishing and shared
culture. Research has shown that ethnicity can be considered a ‘group level phenomena’.
Other researchers argue that organizations’ business strategy should be aligned with the
environment. When the environment entails group values for example ‘collectivism’ ‘duty’,
‘loyalty’ for instance, the business strategy alignment to group values influence influences the
business operation than it does in the mainstream national culture.

Gender and Entrepreneurship

Research on gender differences in the inclination of an individual to become entrepreneur tends

to show that males have a greater predisposition to start a venture. Wagner (2007) showed that
the ‘fear of failure’ discourages women from pursuing entrepreneurship.
Sowell (1981) argue that female propensity to enter into entrepreneurship is as a result of labour
market discrimination in the ‘formal waged sector’.

Youth and Entrepreneurship

The International Labour Organization points out that when a scarcity for job exists, young
people are more vulnerable to employment. Thus, research shows that many youth are pushed
into entrepreneurship. There have been interventions to foster entrepreneurship education,
training and development at all levels in the education system.

Family and Entrepreneurship

The family is seen as serving various social functions. These include reproduction, caring for
members, providing legal rights and preserving cultural traditions. Steier and Greenwood (2000)
argue that the family is integral to start-up business process as it is a source of financial resource
to the entrepreneur. Other researchers contend that the family also provides human resources and
at times a physical space to conduct the business venture.

Religion and Entrepreneurship

Research has shown that various religious groups have contributed to entrepreneurship. Many
entrepreneurial ventures are born out of religion. Religious ideas groups such as Calvinist
influenced the development of capitalism. Protestantism also provides a favourable base for
enterprise.