Entrepreneurs without money (XXII): El Salvador possible entrepreneurship journey with China. Spatial Context explained.
Hello to all. Today is the turn of the spatial context, one of the contexts to analyze when doing the Entrepreneurial Contextual Analysis.
Chongqing is Mainland China’s most densely populated city: 8.2 Million people.
For the purpose of this post, we will refresh the definition of the spatial context. Please do remember, the spatial context is the dimension related to the space of the entrepreneurial milieu or settings. It relates to the size, or the shape or the area that is available to be used for entrepreneurs or it conveys to the area or space used for the particular purpose of the entrepreneurs. Similarly, the spatial dimension also includes the spatial concentration of institutions, policies, and even social norms supporting or even encouraging entrepreneurial behavior. The spatial context goes beyond the physical space; it also has to include the degree of mobility. Spatial awareness is used to adapt activities of the entrepreneur value chain with respect to their proximity and strategies tracking. It may involve a forward tracking (relation to the current coordination to a future goal), or a backward tracking (relation to the current space to past routes or past goals).
Let´s try to understand the spatial context of El Salvador first. For a minute, close your eyes, and stand up. Then think about a circumference transparent bubble which is around you. That circumference bubble is surrounding you with a certain space. That shape or area is available for you to move freely. You can open your arms without any problem. You can certainly open your feet too. And this spatial dimension is your own primary spatial context. Now let´s pass to a new expanded spatial dimension. The spatial context of El Salvador as a country. Let´s think about 6,344,722 Salvadorans living in 21,041 sq km. For each of us, we have 0.00331 km2 (or 3,316.2 m2). It is just a simple division, just divide 21,041 sq km between 6,344,722. Each of us is entitled to live in 3,316.2 m2. How happy is to know that!. Wait a minute. This is not as true. Our country has its own particular relief and landforms, and there are regions in which we can´t live. For each m2 of an area, we have to subtract a space for public social interaction activities and we have to subtract other public and private sector spaces which can´t belong to anyone living in the country.
There are public places which can not belong to any private person: we need space for streets, for natural resources exploitation, for the protection of specific reserve landforms which can´t be private-such as rivers, lakes, sea (these are public landforms which belong to the government and can´t be touched by anyone). In addition, there is a space for public government institutions, for gardens, for parks, for transportation lines (such as metros, trains, trams); for ports, for water facilities and drainages, for energy distribution, for public education entities, etc. In addition, there is a space which belongs to the existing private sector corporations, spaces used for the production of products and services. The latter paragraph brings us to the following idea, a spatial context for each of us is limited by the landform of the country, by the public places we can´t use and by the existing private places which are being used by companies.
Next, this spatial awareness goes beyond the physical space; it includes our mobility and interaction with others. We also socialize with other people. We don´t live alone. We are designed to live in families. We study with others. We work with others. We need certain space to live, act, walk, work, transport, exercise, relax, heal, eat, sleep and create or design our projects to interact with others. All of these spaces are usually established by norms or policies or by regulatory entities. A spatial context is not the density of population, neither if we have more or less spatial area to do our projects. A spatial context is how we use our available space (static and dynamic). We can live in a crowded place, and we can move socially and efficiently all the time. This means that we can live busily moving despite being crowded together. For example, Mong Kok District in Hong Kong has the highest population density in the world with 130,000 people in one square kilometer. It could happen that a Salvadoran entrepreneur (with a good business model) can be successful just by opening a store in Mong Kok!
If we are aware of the social-spatial space, we understand from day one, how to develop ideas for our entrepreneur projects. Either in our own country or internationally. Including China. Why? Because we see our entrepreneurial ideas with a spatial thinking. Regardless of the nature of the entrepreneurial project.
In addition, the spatial context analysis addresses the possibility of our endeavors in a particular spot of land in our world thinking in two ways: static and dynamic (mobility). There are things we can´t do with one specific business static model in China, that we will be able to realize in El Salvador. Or the other way around. Or there are things which we can do as we move (the mobility concept) in China, which we are not able to realize in El Salvador yet (because of lack of infrastructure for mobility).
Some questions to ask ourselves in our Ouverture of commercial relations with China.
- What is the spatial context of Chinese citizens living in Continental China? Which cities?. Guangzhou, Peking or Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Dongguan, Wuhan, or Shenyang, etc…
- What is the spatial concept of the Salvadoran Citizens living in El Salvador? What is our Salvadoran landform? What is the Chinese landform? Can we compare? Is El Salvador ready to negotiate in terms of spatial context awareness?
- Once we do this benchmark, we have to ask ourselves: Are the Chinese interested to establish commercial relations, just because there is a Chinese company (or various Chinese investors) who wish to win the tender to grant the operation of one of our ports, the port terminal in a concession of La Union? Why? Who are these Chinese investors?
- What is the spatial context for China by expanding their commercial interests in El Salvador?.
What do you think Alex Guillermo Lozano Artolachipi? To be continued… Thank you.
Source references which have inspired me to write this article:
https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/top-large-cities.htm
Disclaimer: All the presentation slides shown on this blog are prepared by Eleonora Escalante MBA-MEng. Nevertheless, all the pictures or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.
Eleonora Escalante Strategy 