The impact of any economic activity on the individual should be to develop a ‘sustainable livelihood’ or value. This is measured through the resources which are available to that person, in terms of capital. Here we define capital as a resource which can be stored, held or used for the benefit of the entrepreneur.A number of academic papers have discussed what forms of capital should be measured and how this should be analysed (Scoones, 1998; Berkes & Folke, 1992; Bebbington, 1999) especially when analysing sustainable rural businesses. The impact of the economic activity should therefore be measured by evaluating the development of the entrepreneurs’ capital, based on the eight forms of capital:
- Cultural – Cultural capital functions as a social-relation within an economy of practices (system of exchange), and comprises all of the material and symbolic goods, without distinction, that society considers rare and worth seeking.
- Experiential (Human) – We accumulate experiential capital through actually organizing a project or solving problems and developing solutions.
- Financial – Money, currencies, securities and other instruments of the financial system
- Intellectual – The value of a company or organization’s employee knowledge or any proprietary information that may provide the business or entrepreneur with a competitive advantage
- Material – Non-living physical objects form material capital
- Natural – Made up of the world’s stock of natural resources, which includes geology, soils, air, water and all living organisms
- Social – The networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society
- Spiritual – Practices of personal values, religion, spirituality, or other means of connection to self and universe.
Entrepreneurial activity may increase one or more of these capitals depending on the entrepreneur, the type of business and the stage of the business. This connection to capital also connects with Ahmad & Hoffman (2008) who specify the ecosystem of entrepreneurship as the combination of three factors: opportunities, skilled people and resources. These factors can be driven from our Capitals. Skilled People is intellectual capital. Entrepreneurial opportunity from our social and spiritual capital.
I think we should look at this set of capitals at both a personal, business and community level, its about a set of ecosystems. At any level not all of the capitals have to be used (A Buddhist priest on a personal level may never use Financial capital, An online blogger on a business level may never use Natural capital, A town council may never use the Spiritual capital).
Each entrepreneur has a unique set of capitals, which have specific generic root causes from the entrepreneur themselves, the business industry, the addressed market and locality ecosystem they are active. The skill is understanding which and a what level is required to lead a successful business at what stage.