Imagined futures of sail and steam – The role of community in envisioning entrepreneurial ventures
本文通过研究19世纪末丹麦海事社区关于从帆船转向蒸汽动力的公开辩论，探讨文化社区如何通过构想相互竞争的想象未来来塑造创业活动。
Entrepreneurship is often understood as an individualistic endeavour. This article investigates how cultural communities shape entrepreneurial activity through the process of envisioning competing imagined futures. By deploying a microhistorical approach, it explores a public debate about the transition from sail to steam in a late nineteenth-century Danish maritime community. In the debate, local actors evaluated and negotiated future entrepreneurial actions as embedded in existing norms, interpretations of the past, and socio-technical systems rather than independent, non-conformist ventures. The article demonstrates the potential role of community when we attempt to understand better how entrepreneurs construct and dispute over imagined futures.