Title: The rise of the posh-preneurs: a teaching intervention on social class and entrepreneurship

Authors: Robert Smith

Addresses: Aberdeen, Scotland

Abstract: Introducing 'born-versus-made' arguments relating to entrepreneurial proclivity can be difficult for students who have no particular interest in the topic. Teaching interventions using newspaper articles are a useful method of form of knowledge production and transfer to overcome the problem. This teaching intervention introduces students to a newspaper article written by British journalist Jessica Fellowes, which posits the sociologically contentious notion of the 'posh-preneur', that confronts, and challenges accepted, socially constructed and class-based theories of the entrepreneur as being exclusively from working-class or middle-class backgrounds. The article presented the micro-case stories of four 'Aristocratic Entrepreneurs' James Middleton, Maria Balfour, Marcus Waley-Cohen and Alex Findley profiling their business portfolios. When used in classroom settings, it generates resistance amongst students who refuse to accept that aristocrats and the upper classes are deserving of the title entrepreneur. This intervention encourages students to challenge accepted class-based constructs.

Keywords: class-based entrepreneurship theory; aristocratic entrepreneurs; posh-preneurs; social class.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTTC.2023.130272

International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, 2023 Vol.20 No.2, pp.196 - 204

Received: 29 Mar 2021
Received in revised form: 15 Jun 2022
Accepted: 11 Aug 2022
Published online: 14 Apr 2023 *

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