Entrepreneurship policy and its discourse of difference, distinction and domination

Commonly, entrepreneurship, or more specifically the formation of tech startups, has been attributed with economic growth and job creation by many policy makers in recent years due to their innovative and high-growth potential. Yet, in scientific literature this link remains widely debated, a fact that does not necessarily seem to inform public policy. Therefore, policy agendas targeting entrepreneurship and the process of policy articulation need to be subject to in-depth analysis. On the backdrop of foundational literature and current academic debate, this thesis critically interrogates how entrepreneurship policy stakeholders in Hamburg (Germany) feed a self-sustaining ecosystem based on sociotechnical imaginaries that are disconnected from reality. These imaginaries function as fictional expectations of the future and explain the disconnect between academic findings and policy practice and are uncovered as false motivators. The author presents his critical discourse analysis and ethnographic methodology approach to uncover and identify the sociotechnical imaginaries inherent in the stakeholders’ discourse that serve the policy representatives within a network of actors to maintain or advance position and privilege. Through an analytical framework building on theories by Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu, the author reveals the discourse’s power relations, its institutional arrangements, and practices to unmask mechanisms of differentiation, distinction and domination that fuel the creation of misguided or even counterproductive public policy towards innovation and high-growth entrepreneurship. The study reveals a discourse that is so self-perpetuating that its rationality appears irrational as leaders find themselves in a locked logic that, as we also see with climate change, fails to take account of the evidence even when it appears irrefutable. The study makes several contributes to knowledge First, the evident disconnect between academic research on entrepreneurship policy and policy practice is investigated beyond analysing policy effectiveness and implementation failure and reveals underlying dynamics that shape the regional policy agenda. To make this debate more accessible to international audiences, the regional and German discourse is translated to English. Second, the study uses a unique methodological approach that combines document analysis with ethnographic covert observation, which has not been used within the context of entrepreneurship policy research. Third, the author provides a novel conceptualisation of an analytical framework suited to investigate socially constructed ecosystems by combining the social theories of Foucault and Bourdieu. Given that this study is applying theories by Foucault and Bourdieu to constitute its analytical framework, limitations are self-evident and make it inappropriate to generalise any findings. Still, further research could explore other socially constructed ecosystems and networks to gain additional and complementary insights to further triangulate findings.