Heroism as cultural ferment: Reframing entrepreneurial agency in the polycrisis

Abstract

This research note re-centers heroic entrepreneurial agency by foregrounding heroism as cultural ferment. Previous critical literature has largely converged on an anti-heroic vision of entrepreneurship, thereby downplaying individuals’ capacity for agency. Yet it is precisely through the transformative capacities of individuals that entrepreneurial agency becomes socially meaningful. We offer a fresh account of heroism as the cultural ferment that animates entrepreneurial agency. Encouraged by the ‘postcritique’ in contemporary philosophy, we challenge the dominant view of heroism as an ideologically determined trope and argue that heroic entrepreneurial agents can carry light in dark times.