Biography as a “Tree of Choices”: Discovering the Life Trajectories of Young Entrepreneurs in Russia

Authors

Anastasia Poylova, National Research University Higher School of EconomicsFollow
Elizaveta Polukhina, National Research University Higher School of EconomicsFollow

Abstract

The article reveals the life trajectories of Russian entrepreneurs in the context of four modern institutions of socialization which determine individual career paths—family, education, social environment and professional experience. Our empirical data were 20 semi-structured narrative interviews with entrepreneurs analyzed based on grounded theory (open and axial coding). We analyzed individual life trajectories as “trees of choices,” where the main branches are institutions of socialization, and the subsequent branches—individual life features. Finally, we showed the meanings of each institution and found out the determining role of gender and the city of socialization. The empirical output is a model of life trajectories, which we plan to test in a future survey using the strategy of mixed methods research.

Keywords

Entrepreneur, Individual Life Trajectories, Institutions of Socialization, Mixed Methods Research

Author Bio(s)

Anastasia Poylova is a member of the Department of Management, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia. Correspondence regarding this article can be addressed directly to Anastasia.poylova@gmail.com.

Elizaveta Polukhina is a member of the Department of Sociological Research Methods, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia. Correspondence regarding this article can also be addressed directly to Epolukhina@hse.ru.

Acknowledgements

This article was prepared as part of the Project "Intergenerational social mobility from XX to XXI century: Four generations of Russian history,", supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant № 14– 28–00217.

Publication Date

5-8-2017

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2017.2146

Recommended APA Citation

Poylova, A., & Polukhina, E. (2017). Biography as a “Tree of Choices”: Discovering the Life Trajectories of Young Entrepreneurs in Russia. The Qualitative Report, 22(5), 1259-1268. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2017.2146