Research pick: Entrepreneurship eases ethnic equation - "Entrepreneurship bridging ethnic divides"

Entrepreneurship in post-conflict regions can bridge ethnic divides. That is the primary conclusion of new research published in the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business.

Ana Kopren of the University of Graz in Austria and Hans Westlund of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, in Stockholm, Sweden, have looked at how business activity has improved relationships in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and North Macedonia where conflict and division between ethnic groups have been serious issues for many years. It was, of course, 18th Century philosopher Immanuel Kant who perhaps first suggested that economic exchange and trade between countries is a significant contributor to peace between the nations. The team adds that business networks that connect different ethnic groups are very much a positive way forward and preclude to some degree a way of life that implies coexistence by means of segregation.

The team has surveyed some 130 entrepreneurs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and North Macedonia and found that, perhaps as one might expect, the driving force for those business people working with diverse ethnic networks is fundamentally to increase company profits. The side effect of this drive, however, is the strengthening of bonds between the various ethnic groups within those business networks.

The team writes that their research points to the idea that economic ties can facilitate cooperative patterns and rebuild the broken bonds and divisions between ethnic groups living in the same regions. “Entrepreneurs alleviate ethnic cleavages and improve relations between ethnic groups,” the researchers suggest. In parallel, the researchers add that an influx of refugees from war-torn areas has created new challenges that demand new ways in which to integrate those people into European society for mutual benefit.

“Social values originating from business relationships may be a foundation for reconciliation and collective action,” the team adds. “Repeated business interaction instigates an advantageous social outcome that breaks down prejudices and increases cooperative achievement,” they suggest.

Kopren, A. and Westlund, H. (2022) ‘Entrepreneurship bridging ethnic divides’, Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Vol. 45, No. 4, pp.423–449.