Entrepreneurship, marginality and social stratification

Abstract

Entrepreneurship history enlivens the role of marginalized social groups in their attempts at social insertion. Nowadays, there is scanty a body of researches about entrepreneurship and social stratification, particularly in Brazil. This article stems from a survey, carried out in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, as it focused on the original social layers of local industrial entrepreneurs as well as it correlated to the pattern of inter-generational mobility (fathers to sons) therein. Drawing from our empirical research it may be posited: i.) entrepreneurship doesn’t tend to be a pathway pursued by the elite, being mostly a lower-middle class phenomenon; ii.) the lower the original social stratum, the bigger the chances of inter-generational social vertical mobility. The results shed lights on role of entrepreneurship as a way to social mobility.