How Serendipitous is Serendipity? Understanding How Chance is Constructed in Entrepreneurial Narratives through Accounts of N. R. Narayana Murthy and Kishore Biyani

Abstract

Entrepreneurs often refer to chance to describe early beginnings and mention of serendipitous events is almost ubiquitous in entrepreneurial narratives. N. R. Narayana Murthy, one of the co-founders of Infosys, writes, “As I think across a wide variety of settings in my life, I am struck by the incredible role played by the interplay of chance events…” (Murthy 2009: 7). Allusion to chance or acknowledgment of serendipity is not limited to this excerpt but is part of several narratives of entrepreneurial success from India as well as world over. In this paper, I examine the notion of serendipity at three levels, first – as a word vis-à-vis its etymology and use, second – as a concept that has been used in the context of research to convey unexpected breakthrough. These two inform the first part of my paper and foreground the academic discourse around serendipity. Coming to the third and final part that forms the core of my paper, I look at how Serendipity is constructed as a phenomenon. Here, I undertake narrative analysis through biographies, memoirs and media literature on Murthy and Biyani. My decision to consider these entrepreneurs is informed by their belief in the role of fortuitous events in their lives. Here, I argue how serendipity is not merely a series of “unanticipated good or bad events that result in favorable circumstances” (Merton and Barber 2004: 150) but are mediated through certain values and norms. I scrutinise these values and norms through the lens of Bourdieu’s theoretical framework of habitus, and social and cultural capital. I pursue this part of the paper through two registers – one, narrative analysis, two, I contextualize their biographies within the larger fields of economy. Here, the Indian economy and the event of liberalisation becomes a marker that changed the rules of the field.