Barriers to SME growth in transition economies : the case of Albania

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

To formalize or not to formalize: women entrepreneurs’ sensemaking of business registration in the context of Nepal

Despite the depiction of decisions to formalize informal firms as rational and ethical, many entrepreneurs in developing countries continue to operate informally regardless of its perceived illicit status. While existing research on why entrepreneurs choose informality emphasizes the economic costs and benefits of such decisions, this often overlooks the realities of the informal economy and the constraints which marginal populations—particularly women—face. In this paper, we use institutional theory and sensemaking to understand the experiences of women in the informal economy and what formalization means to them. We use a qualitative approach to collect data from 90 women entrepreneurs in three different cities in Nepal. In our findings, we identify three groups of women with distinctive understandings of formalization—business sustainability, livelihood sufficiency and strategic alignment. Their interpretation of formalization reveals the complex, dynamic, and cyclical nature of formalization decisions. Decisions are also guided by the optimization of social and emotional logics, whereby formalization is conceived differently depending on different life stages, experiences within the informal economy and wider socio-cultural contexts. Our findings highlight the ethical implications of formalization where being a ‘good citizen’, rather than complying with formal rules and regulations, is about attuning to and fitting in with socially prescribed roles. Our research provides a nuanced view of formalization decisions, challenging idealized and ethical notions of formalization as a desired end state

The ineffectiveness of entrepreneurship policy:Is policy formulation to blame?

Entrepreneurship policy has been criticised for its lack of effectiveness. Some scholars, such as Scott Shane in this journal, have argued that it is ‘bad’ public policy. But this simply begs the question why the legislative process should generate bad policy? To answer this question this study examines the UK’s enterprise policy process in the 2009–2010 period. It suggests that a key factor for the ineffectiveness of policy is how it is formulated. This stage in the policy process is seldom visible to those outside of government departments and has been largely ignored by prior research. The application of institutional theory provides a detailed theoretical understanding of the actors and the process by which enterprise policy is formulated. We find that by opening up the ‘black box’ of enterprise policy formulation, the process is dominated by powerful actors who govern the process with their interests

Adapting to the 'credit crunch': financial management practices in UK small enterprises during the 2008/9 crisis

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From discourse to implementation: enterprise policy development in post-communist Albania

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Who is a ‘non-entrepreneur’? Taking the ‘others’ of entrepreneurship seriously

In response to the absence of entrepreneurial action on behalf of non-actors, micro-oriented scholars typically tend to refuse to allocate entrepreneurial capacities to the ‘others’ of entrepreneurship. However, in contesting this explanatory practice, macro-oriented scholars counter that ‘others’ do not lack power but opportunity. This article suggests how recurrent dualisms may be fruitfully surpassed within a conceptual framework that accommodates the ontological intuitions of both theorizing tendencies. Guarding against the temptation to deny the existence of either unexercised powers or unexploited opportunities not only allows us to resist the seduction of dualisms, but also allows for the emergence of an expanded worldview that enables a more dynamic conceptualization of the entrepreneurship phenomenon. The analysis closes by recommending directions for meta-theoretical research aiming at the identification of factors that may be hindering entrepreneurship scholarship from cognizance of realist (and realistic) insights