Grand challenges and the myth of entrepreneurship: A study of high-stakes translations of South African entrepreneurship support organizations and their funders

This paper explores the myth of entrepreneurship and its attachment to grand challenges, by studying the ideational dimension of South African entrepreneurship support organizations (ESOs) and their funders. More specifically, viewed as a form of high-stakes translations of traveling ideas, the study examines the domains of grand challenges that ESOs and their funders engage with, and the way they envision paths to address them in a context with structural injustices. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews with 29 representatives of 25 ESOs and their funders, all operating in South Africa, the study offers a nuanced account where grand challenges emanate from both world society and the local context. In turn, paths envisioned to address them aim for both stability and disruption. It is shown how entrepreneurship’s malleability allows respondents to accommodate a range of high-stakes translations. In addition, the study indicates that ESOs are more focused on the individual and organizational level, while funders aim more at the systemic level, testifying to the importance of looking at multi-sector partnerships. In sum, the study contributes to previous research on entrepreneurship and grand challenges by demonstrating the malleable nature of high-stakes translations by ESOs and their funders. • Ideas addressing grand challenges emanate both from the local context and from world society. • Paths envisioned to address these grand challenges focus on both disruption and stability. • Entrepreneurship support organizations focus more on the individual and organizational level, while funders focus more on the systemic level. • The myth of entrepreneurship may be malleable in a context with structural injustices.