The Inheritor, the Former Worker and the Convert: An Analysis of Different Types of Entrepreneurial Logic among Crafts(wo)men

Based on a quantitative and qualitative survey of “crafts(wo)men” business owners (ceramists, cabinetmakers, glassmakers. . .), this article presents a typology with three groups: the elite artisan, who inherited a family business in a niche market; the traditional maker, who launched his or her own business after employment as a manual worker; and the creator, who gave up a previous executive job at the age of thirty-five to forty in order to become an independent crafts(wo)man. Beyond arts and crafts, this typology sheds light on the distinct ways that small business owners perceive business and the different ways in which they make economic profits. From a sociological perspective, these different entrepreneurial logics are explained by social characteristics and career paths, but are also related to macrosociological and economical evolutions across all business sectors.