Caste, resource endowment, and social power: Tracing trajectories of caste based occupational mobility, from agriculture to entrepreneurship

By Astha Mishra, Sougata Ray

Citation

Mishra, Astha., Ray, Sougata. (2024). Caste, resource endowment, and social power: Tracing trajectories of caste based occupational mobility, from agriculture to entrepreneurship .

2024

Abstract

In this paper, we are looking at the variegated nature of caste mediated occupational mobility from agriculture to business. More specifically, we are looking at regionally dominant landowning castes whose previous occupational affiliations were organized around agriculture, but due to significant historical and material circumstances, their occupational trajectories have transitioned into the realm of business and entrepreneurship. In the pursuit of this enquiry, we have chosen dominant landowning castes from Andhra Pradesh, who have attained occupational mobility and are traversing the domain of business and entrepreneurship. Using empirical evidence derived from case studies of four Indian family businesses, situated in particular caste, region, and occupational locations, our paper provides a framework that augments current understanding of processes and patterns of occupational mobility by juxtaposing the low and high levels of resource endowment (things that are of value in the production process) and social power (a relational capacity that enables certain social actors to asymmetrically influence the decisions of other actors in favor of the empowered actors' will, interests, and values). Our paper contributes to the larger literature on social and occupational mobilities in the following manner: (i) by explicating the financial and non-financial nature of resources that facilitate occupational mobility (ii) explicating the multidimensional and sociological nature of social power, and its visible components such as access to political power, social networks, institutional support, access to tacit knowledge (iii) Juxtaposing the levels of resource endowments with levels of social power to illustrate differential trajectories of occupational mobility.

Sougata Ray is a Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship (Practice), Thomas Schmidheiny Chair Professor, and Executive Director of the Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise, at the Indian School of Business (ISB). Earlier, he served at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta for over two decades as a Professor of Strategic Management, a member of the Board of Governors, and Dean. He was also a senior-level executive at Infosys Technologies Limited for two years in a strategic role as Head of innovation Lab. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and the Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology, Shibpur.

Professor Ray’s research interests have evolved over the years in understanding various facets of strategic management, entrepreneurship, innovation and the governance of firms and business groups in high-growth economies. Given the ubiquity of family firms in India and observing how family owners and leaders play a pivotal role in shaping the future of enterprises, he was gradually drawn into family business research. In recent years, under the aegis of the Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise, he has been spearheading a mega programme towards developing a solid research-based understanding of family firms and business groups in India and South Asia. He has also been leading a research programme in the areas of social entrepreneurship, corporate sustainability strategy and practices, bottom-of-the-pyramid initiatives, and involvement of corporations in inclusive and sustainable development.

Professor Ray is one of the most prolific and cited home-grown strategy scholars in India. He has been publishing regularly in reputed scholarly journals and presenting in leading peer-reviewed international conferences. He has received over half a million dollars in research grants, several prestigious research and teaching awards, and numerous award nominations.

He blends over three decades of experiences in diverse roles – as an international-quality academic, research, and institution builder, alongside hands-on corporate managerial and governance roles as an executive, member of the Board of Directors, and co-founder of startups.. He has been an advisor to numerous medium and large corporations, family businesses, and startups, and he has served as Principal Consultant to leading international development agencies. He currently sits on the governing and advisory boards of several listed and unlisted companies, startups, and social enterprises.

Professor Ray has taught in numerous executive education programmes and has designed and conducted many workshops exclusively for owner-managers, entrepreneurs, and C-level executives of companies in India, Asia, Middle East, Nordic and Scandinavian countries. Over the years, he has led over thirty C- level executive delegations to countries on every continent for high-level meetings with the ministers, high-ranking officials, multilateral agencies such as the WTO and ILO, Chambers of Commerce, MNCs, industrial organisations, research labs, and academic institutions.

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