The "Theory Of Practice" In The Context Of Cultural Discourse

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship among entrepreneurs'background characteristics,entrepreneurial motivation and performance in Zhejiang Province from the sociological perspective.The "theory of practice" is put forward by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu whose complete model of practice conceptualizes action as the outcome of a relationship between "habitus","capital" and "field"."Habitus" usually refers to one's enduring and transposable dispositions which are cultivated from early experiences and reflected in all aspects of life."Capital" refers to the actual and potential resources that one is able to obtain from family,school and the like.In this dissertation,background characteristics consist of demographic information and family background.Motivation has been defined as the purpose or psychological cause of an action and entrepreneurial motivation is further dissected as guarantee orientation,control orientation and achievement orientation.Composed of profitability performance and growth performance,entrepreneurial performance,refers to both the entrepreneur's behaviors and entrepreneurial results.It serves as a scale or an indicator that to some extent reflects the entrepreneur's implementation of entrepreneurial activity.The research is done via answering the following main research questions as "Who are entrepreneurs?","What entrepreneurial motivation do they have?","What entrepreneurial performance do they have?" and "What is the relationship among entrepreneurs'background characteristics,entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial performance?"Research data was collected from questionnaires and in-depth interviews.The findings of quantitative analyses show that entrepreneurial motivation works as a mediator between family status and entrepreneurial performance,which means that family status,one of the key family background indicators,has an effect on entrepreneurial performance through entrepreneurial motivation.Besides,entrepreneurial motivation is more influential on entrepreneurial performance than family status.Furthermore,it implies that background characteristics such as family status can be less influential when strong motivation is involved in the entrepreneurial performance.Qualitative analyses reveal that the relationship among entrepreneurs' background characteristics,entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial performance is much more complicated than conventional knowledge would suggest.Family background is relevant to entrepreneurship given that family capitals have an effect on the formation of entrepreneurs' habitus.And the types and amounts of family capitals such as economic capital,cultural capital and social capital also directly or indirectly decide the corresponding capitals that entrepreneurs can inherit in their early lives.Furthermore,habitus and capitals work together to exert a great impact upon entrepreneurial practice and finally upon entrepreneurial performance.Most entrepreneurs who go into business are driven by material motivation in the first place while there are also some entrepreneurs who are stimulated by spiritual motivation such as freedom and dream.The discourse within cultural discourse studies is defined as a historically and interculturally embedded communicative event or activity,which reveals that Chinese collectivism and family culture play a critical role behind these motivations(Shixu,2014).During entrepreneurship,these motivations might become stronger,weaker or even disappear due to various reasons,which would subsequently influence entrepreneurial performance.Although entrepreneurial motivation is influential on entrepreneurial performance,yet it is affected by habitus and capitals which depend on family status to a certain degree.Thus,entrepreneurial motivation exerts a limited mediating effect between family status and entrepreneurial performance.