Eesti ettevõtja sotsiaalne portree 21. sajandi algul
Date
2007
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
This Master’s thesis titled „The social portrait of the Estonian entrepreneurs at the beginning
of the 21st century” focuses with the social position of entrepreneurs in the Estonian society
at the beginning of the 21st century. The promotion and supporting of business activity has an
important role in the strategic objectives of both the EU and Estonia. At the same time, the
business activity in Estonia is only as half as high as in the other European countries. A
broader objective of the research was to determine the social factors that have caused the low
business activity in Estonia, and to point out communicative possibilities to increase the
activity.
The research task was to describe and systematically analyse the social background and
motivation of entrepreneurs as well as their reflection in the media. For this purpose, I
developed a theoretically founded framework called the ‘social portrait’ in the present paper,
comprising of the social resources, world of values and attitude aspects of entrepreneurs. In
the theoretical part of the research I dealt with the influencing factors of social stratification
as well as discourses of relations between an individual and social groups, and those related to
the construction of social reality. In order to characterise the entrepreneurs’ social portrait, I
used a statistical analysis of representative sociological data in relation to the Estonian
society. In order to open the entrepreneurs’ motivation, I used unstandardised poll (focus
group), the media representation was researched by using an unstandardised content analysis
of texts. The research reflects in all its empiric parts the social conditions in Estonia in 2005.
As a result of the research it appeared that entrepreneurs are, compared to the Estonian
average, substantially wealthier by their economic capital that is first of all expressed in a
higher living standard and the signification of investments into it. In the context of social
relations the entrepreneurs distinguish by the better quality of their relations and a higher than
average extent of being an opinion leader, the latter applies to the fields of technology,
economy and politics. At the same time, entrepreneurs have less possibilities to ask the others
for help, therefore they mostly have to rely upon themselves. It appeared from the analysis of
the world of values that for an entrepreneur, the values related to self determination
(freedom), self enhancement and power are of biggest importance. Less valued by
entrepreneurs is a hedonistic, comfortable and simply nice existence. By their attitudes, entrepreneurs are, compared to others, more optimistic, more positive towards changes, and
support an active participation in the social life. At the same time, entrepreneurs are more
critical than the average with regard to perceiving dangers related to the Estonian society
where they see as most important problems the social satisfaction of people (outflow of brains
and labour force), the low level of political culture, and the continuing increase in social
inequality. The identity approach of entrepreneurs is mostly based on ethnic background and
compared to the others, a stronger coherence of colleagues and persons of the same age or
same generation, and a regionally stronger coherence with the people of Nordic countries are
more important.
As a result of focus groups it appeared that the motivators for being an entrepreneur are first
of all related to the world of values, openness to changes, and individualistic values
expressing self progression, like freedom, self enhancement, wealth and having power. As
most important problems, entrepreneurs point out social resources: lack of required
knowledge and a dominating attitude by the state. Being an entrepreneur does not offer
advantages in the form of a higher social status; the aspect of social prestige and
acknowledgement has disappeared over the last ten years.
In the media representation of entrepreneurs the hierarchy within the group of entrepreneurs
appeared in the context of symbolic capital. The media is presenting merchants and political
elite first of all through their power over the other members of the collective body, by
fetishing and fixing thereby the symbolic capital of the elite. Thus, in the media representation
of small entrepreneurs the discourse of a loser is prevailing. At the same time,
entrepreneurship as a personal quality and values characteristic to entrepreneurship (freedom,
self enhancement) are presented in a positive and acknowledging manner in the media.
As social factors increasing the business activity several possibilities can be pointed out on
the basis of the results of the present research. In the context of the social position and
increasing the welfare, entrepreneurship is most attractive and, on the other hand, most
accessible for the target group of specialists and civil servants. For managers and top
specialists there is a danger of losing in their social status, at the same time, the higher level of
their know-how would enable bringing a new quality into the business. Improving the
problematic relations between the state and the entrepreneurs could be made by
communicative means. Governmental structures should change the attitudes of their employees towards entrepreneurs, highlight the role of a civil servant as a service person, and
the responsibility for equal treatment and application of founded requirements. The state also
could contribute to the improvement of the reputation of entrepreneurs and promote becoming
an entrepreneur in the publicity. From the practical side, governmental structures should pay
more attention to the possibilities of increasing the economic and management related
knowledge of entrepreneurs.
The possibility of the media is the principle of balance. The positive context of being an
entrepreneur, success stories and positive values related to entrepreneurship on the level of an
individual and the society should be highlighted more. Secondly, the non-elite (incl. smaller
entrepreneurs) should be treated as socially vital subjects – not presenting them mostly in the
context of social injustice and in the role of being suppressed.
In increasing the representativeness of entrepreneur’s prestige and interests a decisive role lies
with the activation and increase of power of entrepreneurs’ associations. As a result of the
present research it can be stated that particularly the small entrepreneurs do not have a
representative organisation having a practical supporting role and being their channel of
expression in the media and publics.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), magistritööd, majandus, ettevõtlus, ettevõtjad