Abstract:
Entrepreneurs often refer to chance to describe early beginnings and mention of serendipitous events is almost
ubiquitous in entrepreneurial narratives. N. R. Narayana Murthy, one of the co-founders of Infosys, writes,
“As I think across a wide variety of settings in my life, I am struck by the incredible role played by the
interplay of chance events…” (Murthy 2009: 7). Allusion to chance or acknowledgment of serendipity is not
limited to this excerpt but is part of several narratives of entrepreneurial success from India as well as world
over. In this paper, I examine the notion of serendipity at three levels, first – as a word vis-à-vis its etymology
and use, second – as a concept that has been used in the context of research to convey unexpected
breakthrough. These two inform the first part of my paper and foreground the academic discourse around
serendipity. Coming to the third and final part that forms the core of my paper, I look at how Serendipity is
constructed as a phenomenon. Here, I undertake narrative analysis through biographies, memoirs and media
literature on Murthy and Biyani. My decision to consider these entrepreneurs is informed by their belief in
the role of fortuitous events in their lives. Here, I argue how serendipity is not merely a series of
“unanticipated good or bad events that result in favorable circumstances” (Merton and Barber 2004: 150) but
are mediated through certain values and norms. I scrutinise these values and norms through the lens of
Bourdieu’s theoretical framework of habitus, and social and cultural capital. I pursue this part of the paper
through two registers – one, narrative analysis, two, I contextualize their biographies within the larger fields
of economy. Here, the Indian economy and the event of liberalisation becomes a marker that changed the rules
of the field.
Description:
Thirteenth Biennial Conference on Entrepreneurship/ Edited by Sasi Misra, Sunil Shukla, Ganapathi Batthini
