Inherited Competencies and Cultural Capital: Contextualising the role of family background and upbringing on cultural entrepreneurship in Mumbai

Family background and upbringing are extremely important in India. As a crucial form of both social and cultural capital, they have the power to support, uplift and even hold back aspiring entrepreneurs, given the uniquely stratified and hierarchical nature of Indian society. Zooming out, such social and cultural contexts are similarly reflected in the functioning of India’s economy. As the economy grew through entrepreneurship, a growing body of literature shows that there are indeed strong correlations between certain aspects of family background and successful entrepreneurship. Research on artists' labour markets showcase similar findings, yet detailed empirical descriptions of how the mechanisms of social background and class demographics aid cultural entrepreneurship is lacking. Using the ‘primordial identities’ prevalent in Indian society as a basis for understanding entrepreneurship in the Indian context, this study aims to investigate the socioeconomic and cultural factors that facilitate and ease the process of cultural entrepreneurship in Mumbai, through the lens of family background and upbringing. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with the parents of twelve cultural entrepreneurs who represent a diverse range of cultural and creative activities. Parents were chosen as the prime respondents as they could provide the most detailed information about their family's history, their own upbringing, and their perspectives on how these factors may have influenced their children’s entrepreneurial careers. Through a process of thematic content analysis, results show just how critical family background and upbringing are to the facilitation of cultural entrepreneurship in this small sample group. As expected, privilege, in the form of caste and social class are key aspects of family background that propel entrepreneurship forward. Parents' progressive mindsets, accumulated cultural and financial capital, and Mumbai’s creative and competitive spirit, come together to form a vital framework of support that serves to activate and facilitate cultural entrepreneurship, and in turn, develop the city's CCI’s.