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.
