Title: Looking back at Scottish travellers as nomadic entrepreneurs?

Authors: Robert Smith

Addresses: The Charles P Skene Centre for Entrepreneurship, Aberdeen Business School, The Robert Gordon University, Garthdee Road, AB10 7QE, Aberdeen, UK

Abstract: This qualitative paper adopts a historical approach and reports on desk research conducted by the author using a mixture of internet based research backed up by a critical reading of published writings on the travelling people of Scotland. This blend of the old and the new allows the author to take a critical look back through time at a proud entrepreneurial people. Another innovative data source used is that of Traditional Scottish Ballads and songs. The gist of the paper is that travelling people can (and deserve) to be viewed as an entrepreneurial people because epistemologically and ontologically there is congruence between the entrepreneurial traits and entrepreneurial narratives of Travellers and the settled people of their native Scotland.

Keywords: travelling people; nomadic entrepreneurship; indigenous entrepreneurship; income generation strategies; gypsies; Scottish travellers; Scotland.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2009.023497

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2009 Vol.3 No.3, pp.237 - 255

Published online: 25 Feb 2009 *

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