Dark sides of the startup nation: winners and losers of technological innovation and entrepreneurship in Israel

Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of figures -- List of Tables -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Neoliberalism and Entrepreneurship -- 2 National Neoliberalism and the Israeli Startup Nation -- 3 Center and Periphery in Israel: Startup Nation and Parallel Economy -- 4 Maybe Not the Startup Nation but Definitely a Startup Nation -- 5 Introducing the Theoretical Framework: Contexts, Fields, Norm Circles and Positionality -- 6 What You Look Like Is Important: Technological Entrepreneurs of the Ethiopian Community -- 7 Former Elites Moving Away from the Center? -- 8 Where You Come from Is Important: Migrant Entrepreneurship Between the Center and the Periphery -- 9 Women Still Lagging Behind -- 10 From the Periphery to the Center? Ultraorthodox Jews in High Tech -- 11 Arab-Palestinian Technological Entrepreneurs in Israel-Double Periphery? -- 12 Comparative Analysis of Groups -- 13 What Can We Learn from the Experts? -- 14 Conclusion -- Index.

"Israeli national neoliberalism has promoted innovation policies leading to an ostensible paradox: At the centre is a start-up nation with a vibrant and successful high-tech entrepreneurial eco-system, accumulating resources, and enabling constant growth. At the geographical and social periphery, there has emerged a parallel society with often marginalized groups not able to keep up. In one of the most unequal countries with a high rate of poverty, entrepreneurial heroes are celebrated at the centre, promoting a myth that all could be self-made successes. At the periphery, entrepreneurs are struggling to survive, often pushed into precarious working and living conditions. Applying critical theory discourse, this book illustrates how neoliberalism and entrepreneurship are intertwined and how the start-up nation has evolved in Israel. It explores how national neoliberal state policies have targeted technological innovation as a tool to obtain a competitive advantage in the international arena, rather than aiming at increasing economic achievements and well-being for all. It will demonstrate that the Israeli entrepreneurship scene exemplifies the existence of parallel entrepreneurial societal spaces, analyze the positionality of entrepreneurs belonging to a variety of groups that characterize Israeli society, and uncover structural disadvantages and related levels of precarity, as well as existing links between entrepreneurial advantages and disadvantages, mobility and varying degrees of social marginality. Dark Sides of the Startup Nation sheds light onto the problematic and sometimes contradictory myth that entrepreneurship is meritocratic and that neoliberal capitalism provides everyone with equal opportunities to succeed. The book will be of interest to researchers, academics, policy makers, and students in the fields of entrepreneurship and small business management, responsibility and business ethics, and technology and innovation"--

"Israeli national neoliberalism has promoted innovation policies leading to an ostensible paradox: At the centre is a start-up nation with a vibrant and successful high-tech entrepreneurial eco-system, accumulating resources, and enabling constant growth. At the geographical and social periphery, there has emerged a parallel society with often marginalized groups not able to keep up. In one of the most unequal countries with a high rate of poverty, entrepreneurial heroes are celebrated at the centre, promoting a myth that all could be self-made successes. At the periphery, entrepreneurs are struggling to survive, often pushed into precarious working and living conditions. Applying critical theory discourse, this book illustrates how neoliberalism and entrepreneurship are intertwined and how the start-up nation has evolved in Israel. It explores how national neoliberal state policies have targeted technological innovation as a tool to obtain a competitive advantage in the international arena, rather than aiming at increasing economic achievements and well-being for all. It will demonstrate that the Israeli entrepreneurship scene exemplifies the existence of parallel entrepreneurial societal spaces, analyze the positionality of entrepreneurs belonging to a variety of groups that characterize Israeli society, and uncover structural disadvantages and related levels of precarity, as well as existing links between entrepreneurial advantages and disadvantages, mobility and varying degrees of social marginality. Dark Sides of the Startup Nation sheds light onto the problematic and sometimes contradictory myth that entrepreneurship is meritocratic and that neoliberal capitalism provides everyone with equal opportunities to succeed. The book will be of interest to researchers, academics, policy makers, and students in the fields of entrepreneurship and small business management, responsibility and business ethics, and technology and innovation"--