Phenomenological study of Existential roots and themes in Entrepreneurship

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of Business Creation, Faculty of Entrepreneurship, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

10.22059/jed.2025.388589.654476

Abstract

Objective: Entrepreneurship, is an interdisciplinary and young research field. This developing field has a major capacity and need for conceptualization, in itself and in connection with other fields of knowledge, so that new questions are raised in it and new answers are also found from the connection and combination of other sciences with it. Thus, the body of knowledge of this field can be deepened and expanded.

The aim of this research is to see through the entrepreneurial action from a completely new perspective and raise the question whether entrepreneurship, as a personal action and phenomenon, can have existential themes and roots? Meaning that, in the mental layers of entrepreneurial action, which includes beliefs, motivations, intentions, desires, and purposes, the entrepreneur seeks answers for the existential drivers, and whether his actions overlaps with the fundamental themes of existentialism?

This research seeks to understand entrepreneurship, as an empirical and personal phenomenon, in its most fundamental subjective and intuitive layers. For that, it is needed to understand the lived world of the entrepreneur from the existential perspective in order to clarify different way to view entrepreneurial action.



Method: Considering the subject, objective and question, this is a qualitative research, its ontology is subjectivist, its epistemology is non-probative, its paradigm is interpretive intellectual and its strategy and methodology phenomenology.

Since this research has taken the first step towards phenomenological study of entrepreneurial actions based on existentialism, it is a fundamental research in that seeks to explore uncover concepts and themes.

The position of the researcher is an empathetic observer, which is most compatible with the paradigm of interpretivism and the strategy of phenomenology. The statistical population of this research is the entrepreneurs of small and medium-sized enterprises in Tehran. the entrepreneurial nature of these businesses is based on key indicators including; Innovative product, service and activity in a specific field for the first time and before other competitors; Entering a new market, creating a new market, growing rapidly in the market or in the number of human resources; decision-making and actions in uncertainty; And the activities based on the principles of effectuation.

After developing the research protocol, 5 interviews were conducted from which the research data were extracted. The sampling methods of the research were non-random and multi-stage, and in addition to that, having experience in the phenomenon of entrepreneurship and the desire and ability of interviewee to describe that experience were highly considered. Collecting information from the sample population was done through in-depth, semi-structured or unstructured phenomenological interviews.

Validity and reliability methods of this research contains (internal validity): getting opinions of two participants about the findings, (external validity): articulating some parts of the findings in the form of quotations. (Internal reliability): checking the processes of information gathering, coding and reviewing data multiple times by the researcher and (external reliability): the comparison of raw data and analyzed data.



Results: After analyzing the information collected from the literature review and conducting phenomenological interviews, 51 existential themes related to entrepreneurial action were deduced and extracted. Many of these 51 themes had subcategory themes themselves. Thus the description of each theme was determined. Also, by integrating and combining these themes in a bottom-up approach, 8 main clusters of existential themes related to entrepreneurial action were determined, containing; Being-in-the-world; time; communication and co-existence (being-in-the-human-world); from facticity to standing out; building oneself and one's world through action in the path of authenticity; freedom, responsibility and choice; meaning in entrepreneurship and death.



Conclusion: As a result of the research, 51 existential themes categorized in 8 main clusters related to entrepreneurial action were uncovered and identified. The high repetition of these themes in the interviews indicates the theoretical saturation and also a rich roots of existentialism in entrepreneurial action and the phenomenon of entrepreneurship. These 51 themes and 8 main clusters reveal the main interrelated concepts between entrepreneurial action and existentialism and indicate the deep connection between these two fields of knowledge and concepts. Furthermore, it was found out that the existential themes mentioned in this research, consciously or unconsciously existed in the mental layers of the interviewed entrepreneurs and provided a basis, meaning and reason for their decision making and entrepreneurial action.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Entrepreneurship Development
Volume 18, Issue 1
May 2025
Pages 144-174

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