The Creation Process of Stylized Knowledge: Exploring Embodied Knowledge in Taiwan B&Bs Entrepreneuring.
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Abstract
This paper intends to explore the entrepreneurial knowledge in the Taiwanese Bed-and-Breakfast (B&B) industry in the light of the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception. The entrepreneurial knowledge can be categorized in five dimensions of body practice: (1) building characterized architectural style of the B&B; (2) transforming the B&B into a local attraction; (3) integrating the style of B&B with local cultural, environmental, and ecological features; (4) taking cost and business management into practice; and (5) implementing a practical customer service procedure. This finding implies that each B&B entrepreneur might have developed a distinctive perception of entrepreneurship and their unique body schema while putting entrepreneurial knowledge into practice. From this perspective, B&B entrepreneur reflects the notion of body subject in Merleau-Ponty’s sense. As an entity of established behavior in relevant matters, each individualized style of B&B owners’ entrepreneurial practice demonstrates their body schema, embodiment, and entrepreneurial habits, which would then define their own way of perceiving and creating links to other subject matters and conditions. To conclude, the creation of entrepreneurial knowledge involves empirical experience and can thus be seen as evidence of a successful combination of an individual’s self-awareness and perception of the living world.
