Entrepreneurship in emerging economies

Abstract

Research Summary The economic center of gravity is shifting from mature markets to emerging regions. This shift provides a good opportunity to broaden and deepen our theoretical base of concepts and frameworks because emerging and mature regions differ significantly in their institutional regimes. Hence entrepreneurial resource mobilization in emerging regions could differ significantly because of theoretical differences in actors' action logics and resource governance. The eight papers in this special issue provide new empirical evidence on antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurial resource mobilization efforts in emerging regions. Here, we briefly summarize the state of the field, introduce the articles by situating them in a novel theoretical framework on entrepreneurial resource mobilization, and finally using our framework, we suggest opportunities for future research on entrepreneurship in emerging regions. Managerial Summary Entrepreneurship research has advanced mainly using empirical data from the developed economies of North America and Western Europe. Because emerging economies differ markedly in their institutional development from developed economies, this prior research is less likely to be useful to understand entrepreneurship in emerging regions ‐ which are increasingly crucial components of the global economy. This special issue contains eight articles addressing different aspects of the entrepreneurial resource mobilization process using diverse research methods on empirical data drawn from a broad range of emerging economies. This introduction describes the state of the field prior to the special issue, introduces the special issue articles and identifies topics that still need further investigation. We distill the current state of knowledge and offer a roadmap for future scholarship.

Innovative entrepreneurship in emerging and developing economies: the effects of entrepreneurial competencies and institutional voids

“…That reveals the significance and power of the normative institutions (i.e., culture). Although it was contrary to what we predicted, we suggest a possible interpretation that considers the informal governance mechanisms (e.g., social and kinship ties) in resource mobilization of entrepreneurial ventures a nonsubstitutable element in EDE contexts (Foo et al, 2020). Informal governance is derived from embeddedness in ongoing social relations and refers to relational arrangements that are built on trust, reciprocity, and identity…”

“…Further, we contribute to the literature by particularly focusing on EDEs as the context of our study which has been called for by prior studies (Foo et al, 2020;Webb et al, 2019). Our findings suggest that the joint effects of micro-and macro-level configurations offer more explanatory power than the examination of entrepreneur competencies alone does.…”

The role of the board chair—A literature review and suggestions for future research

“…In our review, we noticed a growing trend that complements the dominance of US-based studies with samples from different European and Asian countries, often considering multicountry samples. Emerging economies are experiencing increased entrepreneurship and growing startup rates (Foo, Vissa, & Wu, 2020), and the role of the board chair is likely to differ between developed and developing countries, which is a strong reason for conducting more research on developing countries. Moreover, the institutional and regulatory framework tends to be less developed in emerging economies (e.g., Lin & Chuang, 2011).…”

The emergence and evolution of cognition‐ and affect‐based trust in Russian entrepreneurial ventures

“…Fourth, our study builds on the existing literature on resource mobilization in young entrepreneurial firms (Bhagavatula, Elfring, Van Tilburg, & Van De Bunt, 2010;Clough et al, 2019;Hanlon & Saunders, 2007;Li, Lin, & Arya, 2008;Villanueva, Van de Ven, & Sapienza, 2012) by explicating how trust can be used to compensate for the lack of available resources in the emerging/transitioning entrepreneurial contexts. The current paper extends the notion of non-market logics in accessing entrepreneurial resources (Clough et al, 2019;Foo et al, 2020) through…”

“…Emerging countries are often characterized by the underdevelopment of formal institutions, which hinders private economic activity and negatively affects entrepreneurial initiatives (Aidis, Estrin, & Mickiewicz, 2008;Estrin, Korosteleva, & Mickiewicz, 2013;Khanna & Palepu, 2010;Puffer, McCarthy, & Boisot, 2010). As a result of these institutional weaknesses, entrepreneurial resource mobilization in emerging regions is likely to be more reliant on nonmarket logics and informal governance modes that are based on trust and social relationships (Clough, Fang, Vissa, & Wu, 2019;Foo, Vissa, & Wu, 2020). It is not surprising, therefore, that scholars of entrepreneurship in emerging economies pay considerable attention to examining the role of trust in entrepreneurial activity (Batjargal, 2007a(Batjargal, , 2007b(Batjargal, , 2007cManolova, Gyoshev, & Manev, 2007;Nguyen, Le, & Freeman, 2006;Xin & Pearce, 1996).…”