For the past decade, we’ve observed that Americans’ political affiliations significantly influence their daily lives, influencing factors such as their residential choices, friendships, and even preferences for potential in-laws.
According to a recent survey by the Cato Institute, almost one-third of Americans are concerned that expressing their political views could potentially damage their employment prospects. This growing political tribalism, particularly during an election year, poses a threat to the crucial social networks essential for entrepreneurs.
Bridging divides
However, a study from USC’s Marshall School of Business presents an intriguing example of how to bridge connections across political divides, drawing inspiration from an unexpected source: Kenya.
“Kenya provided a fruitful ‘extreme context’ to study how entrepreneurs develop business ties in divided societies,” the researchers explain. “Kenya is a hub of entrepreneurial activity in Africa and an ethnically fractionalized country that recently faced a profound institutional change that made ethnicity more salient.”
The study tracked the progress of four IT companies based in Nairobi over a span of seven years, starting from the devolution of power in Kenya in 2013.
The shift of authority from a central government to 47 local entities heightened ethnic affiliations, with most localities aligning with tribal communities. However, this decentralization also spurred a push for digitization at the county level, creating business prospects for IT entrepreneurs engaged in substantial infrastructure projects—provided they could establish connections that transcended deeply ingrained ethnic boundaries.
Growth prospects
“These companies had previously worked with relatively pragmatic bureaucrats in the central government,” the researchers explain. “Now they were forced to work with often tribally oriented local government officials.”
County government officials often lacked experience in dealing with intricate IT projects, making it difficult to sell products based solely on their features. Additionally, these officials had limited exposure to diverse groups and faced political pressures to prioritize tribal interests. The study revealed that IT entrepreneurs employed two primary tactics to overcome ethnic affiliations: establishing alternative social connections or shifting the focus away from ethnicity.
“Sometimes they shifted the in-group with government officials to create in-roads along commonalities like sports interests or faith,” the authors continue. “Other times they completely defocused from ethnicity, avoiding small talk to focus on the product benefits or their technology certifications or business school collaborations.”
Beyond the norm
The entrepreneurs went beyond conventional approaches by providing free consulting services on IT matters. They also utilized their social networks to assist potential customers in resolving broader business challenges unrelated to the potential projects. These strategies created a unique way to establish trust, a trust that typically relies on ethnic similarities. This approach effectively showcased the shared business objectives of both the government and the IT company.
“There’s an assumption that the potential for economic gains smooths over potential challenges that arise from dissimilarities, but that’s not necessarily true in ethnically charged settings,” the researchers continue. “When a society is fractured, cultural pressures may outweigh economic ones.”
The study acknowledges that the founders’ previous experiences in building cross-ethnic relationships provided a distinct advantage for the four IT companies examined. Each founder had a spouse from a different tribe, and many had diverse ethnic backgrounds or grew up in cosmopolitan settings that embraced inter-ethnic perspectives.
The research outlines specific strategies for effectively navigating partisan divisions, a challenge that extends well beyond the business environment. It proposes that the ability to transcend social boundaries and a willingness to form relationships on various foundations may be the key to expanding social networks. Moreover, it serves as a valuable lesson for global companies, emphasizing the importance of understanding the social and ethnic context of a region when launching a product successfully.
