The positive development role of informal economic activity: The case of informal printing firms in Ghana

Darbi, William Phanuel Kofi; Knott, Paul

doi:10.1002/bsd2.170

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 89 publications

(117 reference statements)

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“…Furthermore, literature explains that resistance to formalize is driven by governments’ inability to recognize the informal institutional arrangements established through the participants’ recurrent daily practices and interactions (Giraldo et al , 2020; Darbi and Knott, 2021) in which social capital is the primary differentiator among other considerations (Viswanathan et al , 2014) and social networks provide well-being and trust (Viswanathan et al , 2010).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informal service economy: a research study of attitudes, motivations and practices among informal entrepreneurs

Giudice

Giraldo

Alkire

et al. 2023

JSM

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Purpose This study aims to explore how the attitudes, motivations and practices of informal entrepreneurs, who choose service exclusion, prevent them from recognizing and taking advantage of transformative opportunities and embracing change. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a two-year study to explore five types of informal entrepreneurs (musicians, street vendors, artists, owners of informal smoke shops and street food vendors). The authors used semi-structured interviews and applied thematic analysis (ATA) of popular music and narratives to shed light on their attitudes, motivations and practices. Findings The study shows how potential service participants freely exclude themselves from services and transformative service initiatives, preventing them from realizing opportunities and embracing change that can improve their well-being. The study also demonstrates that to serve human needs fairly, service designers need to recognize that some actors require more attention and resources than others to achieve their potential. Originality/value The study challenges the notion that any population experiencing vulnerability wants help and chooses to participate in transformative service initiatives. Service participants can, in fact, exclude themselves from services and transformative service initiatives by free will, demonstrating that service exclusion is a multidirectional phenomenon, not unidirectional. Additionally, the paper analyzes narratives gathered from aesthetic expressions, using principles of ATA, introducing music thematic analysis as a research approach.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informal service economy: a research study of attitudes, motivations and practices among informal entrepreneurs

Giudice

Giraldo

Alkire

et al. 2023

JSM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To test our hypotheses, we designed an extensive survey targeting individuals working and/or living in the Accra New Town informal cluster in Ghana. The Accra Newtown locality is traditionally a residential area that has developed into a growing business hub for informal economic activities (Darbi & Knott, 2021). Hence, both domestic and commercial activities co-exist in the locality.…”

Section: Sample and Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic Entrepreneurship in the Informal Economy

TEYI¹

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The informal economy accounts for the majority of global economic activities. Entrepreneurs significantly contribute to the growth of the informal economy. This thesis contributes to the growing literature on entrepreneurship in the informal economy by taking a strategy perspective. The thesis consists of three papers that examine strategic entrepreneurship in the informal economy at the early stages of the venture creation process. It also investigates the strategies entrepreneurs (who have successfully launched their firms) in the informal economy employ in response to adversity. Drawing on entrepreneurial identity literature, the first paper highlights important heterogeneities among entrepreneurs in the informal economy and how it shapes the different strategies entrepreneurs employ in adversity. We find four primary entrepreneurial identities in our sample and three response strategies closely related to these identities. The second paper focuses on the decision-making of prospective entrepreneurs. The paper examines the pre-entry search activities that individuals engage in as they search for information and learn about the viability and feasibility of their business idea. The paper shows that both individual (human capital) and external factors (embeddedness in informal institutions) when examined jointly and separately are essential in understanding entrepreneurial behavior at the earliest stage of the venture creation process. The third paper sheds light on entrepreneurial learning by examining the pre-entry search activities of habitual entrepreneurs during two spells of entrepreneurship. The paper shows a strong positive association between the number of pre-entry search activities that entrepreneurs conduct in both spells of entrepreneurship when they exceed their performance aspirations. This aligns with the literature on performance feedback, which suggests that organizations do not change their current strategy when seen to be successful. However, the notion that habitual entrepreneurs in the informal economy may pursue a repetitive ‘winning’ strategy contrasts with the findings that habitual entrepreneurs in the formal economy may pursue more innovative businesses. This may also help us understand why replicative businesses are common in the informal economy. In conclusion, this thesis finds that human capital is beneficial in conducting an extensive search during the entrepreneurial pre-entry stage. More so, being deeply embedded dampens the gains from having high human capital endowments, while being broadly embedded in a larger number of informal institutions strengthens the benefits of human capital. We also find that the positive association between the number of pre-entry steps taken in the first and second spells of entrepreneurship is stronger when entrepreneurs perform above their aspirations. Finally, our data reveals four entrepreneurial identities and three key response strategies that are closely related to entrepreneurial identities.

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Female Managers, Informal Enterprises, and Their Perceived Financial Performance in Togo

Gadedjisso-Tossou

Gueyié

Couchoro

2022

Journal of African Business

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The positive development role of informal economic activity: The case of informal printing firms in Ghana

Cited by 3 publications

References 89 publications

Informal service economy: a research study of attitudes, motivations and practices among informal entrepreneurs

Informal service economy: a research study of attitudes, motivations and practices among informal entrepreneurs

Strategic Entrepreneurship in the Informal Economy

Female Managers, Informal Enterprises, and Their Perceived Financial Performance in Togo

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