Center for International Trade and Development (JNU)
cordially invites you to its departmental seminar
Indigenous Entrepreneurial Performance in Mizoram (India): Role of tribal culture and failure of policy incentives
Speakers: Shailaja S Thakur
(Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi) and Amit S Ray (CITD, JNU)
Date & Time : Wednesday, 13th Sept 2017, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Venue : Room 125, School of International Studies II (New Building)
ABSTRACT : Entrepreneurship development has remained a key focus of developmental policies for indigenous societies the world over. Indigenous societies are defined by unique social and cultural identities which have an important influence on individuals’ attitude towards business and profits and hence the character and nature of entrepreneurs in mainstream (industrialized) societies cannot prove to be of much use in understanding indigenous entrepreneurs. This paper makes a contribution to this literature on indigenous entrepreneurship by looking at the case of Mizo entrepreneurs. Government policy in Mizoram made a clear case for active government intervention to encourage entrepreneurship and industrialisation, primarily through providing subsidies to new and existing entrepreneurs. All these efforts of the Government notwithstanding, Mizoram has lagged in entrepreneurship development and industrialisation.
This brings us to our core research puzzle, namely how to explain this apparent failure of conventional policies to promote entrepreneurship in Mizoram. In order to do so, we need to identify and understand the factors that could potentially determine entrepreneurial success or failure in an indigenous society like Mizoram. This entails a multidisciplinary perspective that considers not only conventional economic parameters but also the institutional and cultural contexts defining such societies. Mizo entrepreneurs must therefore be analysed through the lens of their tribal culture and institutions. In this paper, our aim is to capture the drivers of entrepreneurial dynamism and performance in Mizoram through the interplay of culture, institutions, and the policy framework. We use tools of applied econometrics on a primary data set of 88 Mizo entrepreneurs, generated through semi-structured questionnaire-based interviews. We find that tribal culture plays a major role in shaping entrepreneurial dynamism and performance among Mizos, while conventional policies of incentives or subsidies seem to have been somewhat counter-productive.
