Jamaican cultural attitudes to entrepreneurship: a comparative exploration

Abstract

This is an exploration of cultural beliefs and attitudes to entrepreneurship in Jamaica. A hybrid qualitative and quantitative methodology is employed to empirically discover the existence of diverse sub-cultural perspectives in Jamaica that cannot be predicted from coarse measures such as Hofstede's dimensions of national culture. A comparison to similar data from Canada serves to place these results in a broader research context. It is proposed that the relative strength and preponderance of these subcultures in the local environment act to bridge between Jamaican national culture and the individual cognitions and subjective norms that directly influence entrepreneurial intentions and actions. These subcultures are therefore significant to the design of policies and practices to affect national entrepreneurship rates in Jamaica.