SOC 4920 - Economic Sociology of Entrepreneurship

(SBA-AS)

Fall. 4 credits.

V. Nee.

The importance of entrepreneurship in the making of the modern global economy is widely accepted. Indeed, the entrepreneur has long embodied a cornerstone of business success, as an important avenue for economic and social advancement. Entrepreneurship as a key engine of macroeconomic and employment growth is fundamentally a social institution. Why do cultural beliefs matter for entrepreneurial action? What exactly is modern rational capitalism? Why is there a concentration of high-tech firms in Silicon Valley? Why has entrepreneurial capitalism emerged in China? These are some of the questions that this course will explore through the theoretical lens of the new institutionalisms in economics and sociology. The new institutional approaches in economics and sociology have sought to understand the beliefs, norms and institutions that shape and drive the global economy. The systematic application of social science reasoning to explain economic behavior involves analysis of the ways in which social networks, norms and institutions enable, motivate and guide economic behavior. The goal of this course is to provide an understanding of entrepreneurs as the central economic actor in the dynamics of capitalist economic development in the modern era of global economy.