Anthropology in Business

Often “business anthropology” and “corporate anthropology” are used interchangeably. In my experience, these are two very different fields of study in the Anthropology. However, too many times, I've read and met anthropologists and anthropology students who think that advertising is business anthropology. There is definitely a role for ethnography in both academic and applied research in advertising. But in my experience, advertising is a sub-field of Marketing, which in turn is a sub-field of creating and managing a business enterprise.

Business anthropology, from my 40 years of experience as a consultant, applied anthropologist, and adjunct business professor, treats the company as an "organic social" entity. As a social entity, it can take many different legal forms and organizational structures. Business anthropology focuses on the way a social group(s) engages is economic exchange, it is transactional in Malinowski's functional sense. 

Corporate anthropology is the study of a legalistic and political organizational structure in the modern marketplace. In the broader anthropological sense, academic and applied studies of corporations are conducted from the Radcliffe-Brown structural perspective to determine how this social structure functions.

There is definitely a need for and market for both business and corporate studies by anthropologists. The way one approaches these organizations differ and the focuses are different. Business anthropology would be a sub-discipline of Economic anthropology. Corporate anthropology would be a sub-discipline of Social and Cultural anthropology.

Applied anthropologist who consult for small businesses should approach their clients with an open mind about the sociocultural system that they will find and the problems they will be asked to address. They should not assume that a corporate approach will  solve the problem or that it can be resolved from an advertising approach.