Folklore as an information source for businesses

For this summer, I am investigating the feasiblity of folklore and storytelling being applied to modern online delivery of business information. So far, my hunch that guides my thesis is that folklore and storytelling, prior to the invention of writing, as oral art forms, were the means employed for communicating, providing or sharing information and as ancient techniques for information delivery. Since today’s online culture of information provision borders on a combination of print and oral traditions in information provision, the quest is to discover how folklore and storytelling can feasibly be applied in the modern online environment to delivery of serious or non-fiction information, and specifically apply these to communicating and providing business information, to entrepreneurs and micro-enterprise owners. 

As I have begun the readings on folklore, I see 3 main ideas emerging:

1. The theme of folklore as an economic resource for exploitation by business and capital, and how current developments in information technology and legislation have now positioned a new area for the exploration of folklore as a resource for commercial exploitation

2. The importance of a folklore collection as a source of information, not only for folklore academic researchers and humanists, but for a wide group of potential and enterprising business groups in the creative enterprises and industries such as game development, authors and creative writers, film, animation, graphics design, advertising, theatre, publishing, leisure, tourism and travel, landscapers, architects, fashion and other industry players involved in providing entertainment.

3. Folklore as an information source for businesses seeking to go global - having understanding of customs, characters, motifs and other folkloric content can help an entrepreneur from one nation create/develop appropriate services and marketing campaigns for customers in another nation.

As such, I see there is already a connection between folklore and business/enterprises. I also see a justified place for folklore collection in libraries for entrepreneurs. I am excited by what I have been finding so far, though I have not yet started to explore the use of folklore in actual information provision.

My research to focus on Student Entrepreneurs

I have decided to narrow my studies to focus on student entrepreneurs and their information needs. This focus emerged from the challenge of studying small businesses, as there are many varieties and flavours of the term. There are competing definitions of small business, as well as the fact that current entrepreneurship recognises that there are various sub categories within small businesses that have special or unique needs and problems. There are Women owned businesses, Mompreneurs and Family businesses to name a few.


The literature of information seeking studies tend to focus on large firms, corporate executives and on managers. My study on the other hand want to zoom in on university or college students and their needs for information. I assume that  university students need information for undertaking entrepreneurship that may be different from other entrepreneurs.

I feel that students are different because they:

1. usually work and study
2. might be on student loan and may be more timid to take a risk to venture into entrepreneurship if they are not sure how they can pay back their student loan
3. are expected by society's traditional norms to get jobs
4. usually have less work/working experience to capitalise on, and 
5. may not have the connections to social capital or other networks needed to establish business

I am going to also focus on how academic libraries can provide information services to help these students meet their information needs.

The first step however in my research proposal for my doctoral dissertation is to first find out what government information services exist online for these student entrepreneurs and potential student entrepreneurs. Does the government provide online information accessible to these students to assist them to launch their businesses and start-ups?

Student entrepreneurship is not new. Many high-tech companies such as Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, Google were all start-ups launched by university students.