Abstract

How is it possible for individuals and small groups of people, who share particular values or identity, to prosper through their legitimate economic activities with the rest of the world? How does this benefit society and meet some of the imperatives of humanity at the start of the 21st Century? This paper argues that we need to help people in the small business community assess and develop in a positive way the consequences of their actions on themselves and on society. The purpose of the whole enterprise of research is to inform the future, not to explain the past. The entrepreneurial activity is seen as a reflexive shaping of the world and the small firm as a vehicle for economic adaptation. Entrepreneurship is a praxis of knowing and doing, of anticipating and acting, and it is exactly here where foresight becomes alive. Critically requiring the engagement and involvement the people who have an identifiable stake in the future being created. One paradox is that as one seeks to improve the salience and benefit of technology to the (small business) community in particular, this activity itself becomes a discourse of technological determinism. Each step, each shift in the path of activity, has social consequences and will require governance. We are all stakeholders in this.