Old Roots into New Trees: Artisan Entrepreneurship in Cyprus

Abstract

This chapter focuses on artisan entrepreneurship in Cyprus. Cyprus is known to have a long history in traditional sectors of the economy. Over time, this focus has shifted to mass tourism and higher education. Currently, Cyprus is known to be a white-collar island. Nevertheless, university graduates are revolutionizing the traditional artisan and crafting sectors of Cyprus. The study addresses an important gap in artisan entrepreneurship in traditional economic sectors, which were primarily known to be sectors that were facing an aging problem. Artisan entrepreneurs combine traditions with their talents and formal university education, providing them tools to transform the “old roots into new trees”. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with six artisan entrepreneurs, selected as a result of identifying traditional sectors based on the culture of Cyprus. The chapter’s originality lies in its review of circumstances confronting artisan entrepreneurs and its findings concerning how entrepreneurship can occur in traditional sectors. Target Audience Our target audience consists of practitioners, professionals, and students. For practitioners, traditions are identified as a source of innovation. For professionals, artisan entrepreneurship based on traditions is explored, especially regarding financing, which provides room for intervention from the side of policymaking. For students, the study provides a new face to entrepreneurial cases, one that does not rely on high-tech but rather on traditional sources of innovation.