Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship

The purpose of this study is to analyze the importance of relational leadership for a social business initiative in rural Uganda. The author follows the case of the Hope Development Initiative (HDI) that supports (i) female farmers to become entrepreneurs as well as (ii) the development of the region. The study aims to illuminate relational leadership theory, particularly how it is applied in a specific context. Data were gathered during a ten-day research expedition to Northern Uganda. The study first presents obstacles the HDI faces in terms of lack of resources as well as socio-cultural dynamics limiting its organizational processes. Afterward, a framework of HDI’s processes of relational leadership serves to analyze and structure the results, thereby demonstrating how HDI actors manage to circumvent these obstacles based on building relationships with critical actors from the stakeholder environment. The case indicates that relational leadership should be seen as one of the most critical organizational capabilities to access resources for value creation in rural Uganda when actors from the stakeholder environment hold these required resources. The study demonstrates how relational leadership incorporating actors from the stakeholder environment on the micro level affects the success of the respective organization and development of the region on the macro level.

Retailing dominates the informal environment where activities occur in private and public spaces. Notwithstanding the contributions from informal retailing entrepreneurs (IRE), a paucity of research remains on the complex entrepreneur-environment exchange and in particular, the relationship between retailing entrepreneurs and the informal environment in Caribbean economies. This qualitative study aims to explore the informal retailing environment between 2003 and 2018 for informal sector start-ups in the Caribbean, specifically Barbados. Guided by Gnyawali and Fogel’s Integrative Model of Entrepreneurial Environments, content analysis of newspaper articles unveiled insights about the country’s environmental conditions pertaining to (a) government policies and procedures, (b) socioeconomic conditions, (c) entrepreneurial and business skills, (d) financial assistance, and (e) non-financial assistance and its impact on new enterprise creations. The study’s results imply that the Barbadian IRE have not been embraced fully, which reduces the likelihood of new informal venture creations testing the market and the potential for more IRE transitioning to the formal market. Empirical findings infer that efficient market functioning requires clear policies and procedures and fewer barriers limiting people from pursuing business opportunities, making the environment more conducive to new business start-ups.

This paper evaluates three waves of institutional theory that have variously explained participation in informal sector entrepreneurship. The first wave of institutional theory explains informal entrepreneurship as resulting from formal institutional failures. This second wave of theory explains it as resulting from an asymmetry between the laws and regulations of formal institutions and the unwritten socially shared rules of informal institutions. Finally, a third wave of theory as resulting from a lack of both vertical and horizontal trust has explained informal entrepreneurship. To evaluate these waves of institutional theory, this study reports evidence from a 2015 survey of businesses in Albania. This finds that 30 percent of turnover of Albanian businesses is under-reported and that this percentage is higher in smaller firms. In terms of the institutional failures that explain participation in informal entrepreneurship, the regression analysis reveals a strong association between annual under-reporting of turnover and the red tape involved in dealing with the tax administration and the frequent visits of tax inspectors. Moreover, it shows both vertical and horizontal trust are strongly associated with participation in informal entrepreneurship. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and policy implications.

This study examined the barriers to success and sources of assistance available for U.S. Hispanic female entrepreneurs. The goal of this research was to identify the problems, determine the source of solutions and then provide advice for the success of Hispanic female entrepreneurs. Our findings indicate that major barriers to success included a lack of capital and lack of marketing knowledge. In addition, our findings suggest that Hispanic female entrepreneurs turned to family members for assistance, rather than other sources of assistance. We advise that a break from this traditional behavior in seeking assistance is warranted. We provide suggestions for practitioners, researchers, and advisors in the form of three propositions.

The purpose of this study is to explore the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and growth potential of microenterprises. To test the research hypotheses, multiple regression and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were used. Multiple regression was used in explaining how well EO predicts microenterprises growth potential. MANOVA compares the groups and indicates whether the mean differences between the groups on the combination of dependent variables are likely to have occurred by chance. Our study contributes to the literature by exploring the growth potential of the existing microenterprises and explains its relationship to owners’ EO in both urban and rural informal sectors.

This study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation of female entrepreneurs and business performance, and analyzes the moderating role of institutional capital on the entrepreneurial orientation-performance link. The results of the study highlight the important role of entrepreneurial orientation, including proactiveness, innovativeness and risk-taking, in directing business performance of female entrepreneurs and the complex interplay among entrepreneurial orientation variables. It also indicates that accessibility to institutional capital, through regulative, cognitive and normative dimensions, encourages female entrepreneurs to be more entrepreneurially oriented, thus leading to better business performance. In addition, this research proposes an integrated framework to guide policy makers on how institutional capital can play a crucial role in helping female entrepreneurs, stressing the importance of becoming entrepreneurial oriented and thus, achieving superior business performance.

The purpose of this study is to assess the three-factor production functions describing the dependence of the small enterprises (SEs) and microenterprises, which include turnover on the wages of their employees, investments in fixed capital and the entrepreneurial capital of a particular region. The authors propose the indicator that characterizes the level of entrepreneurial capital — the number of employees of large enterprises located in the respective regions. This study is based on the empirical spatial data specifying the activities of employees in all SEs and microenterprises, as well as a number of large enterprises. The official statistical information includes observations on business activity of 1,449 SEs and microenterprises in 80 Russian regions in 2015. The research determines the factors influencing the turnover of enterprises, proves the high quality of the source data approximation using the three-factor production functions and confirms the need for an increased number of small and microenterprises for the Russian regions’ economy. The authors discover tools for the evaluation of production functions, which are of academic and practical importance. They can be used in studies of the regions’ entrepreneurial sectors, for monitoring the efficiency of resource use, and the rationale for the entrepreneurship development programs.