Entrepreneurship and identity: cosmopolitanism and cultural competencies among German‐Turkish businesspeople in Berlin

Abstract

This article investigates the connections between entrepreneurship and identity in the case of Turkish entrepreneurs in Berlin. It presents empirical material describing how they run their businesses in fields such as finding premises, recruiting staff or targeting a clientele. Shop‐owners are shown to rely both on co‐ethnic and non co‐ethnic resources and it is argued that it is the combination of these two sets of resources that enables businesses to survive. This implies that entrepreneurs live and work in a culturally mixed context and that they have the necessary skills and cultural competencies to handle this complexity. The concept of cosmopolitanism is proposed to address this identity pattern and it is argued that German‐Turkish businesspeople display a kind of cosmopolitanism that is characterised by its non‐elite, practical and half‐conscious dimensions.

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