Introduction to the Research Handbook on Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies

Abstract

This Handbook aims to provide a range of contextualized perspectives on entrepreneurship in emerging economies. Context is defined as the ‘circumstances, conditions, situations or environments that are external to the respective phenomenon and enable or constrain it’ (Welter, 2011, p. 168), further classified as ‘a multiplex phenomenon which cuts across levels of analysis and influences entrepreneurship directly or indirectly’ (ibid., p. 176). We start by recognizing that the theories, processes and practices of entrepreneurship in emerging economies are likely to vary markedly from those in developed post-industrial economies. This perspective is adopted because the national context that shapes incentives for both opportunity and necessity entrepreneurial efforts differs in emerging economies. For example, in these economies the state’s capacity to provide the foundations for the functioning of markets is lower, a greater degree of political instability is present, a clear regulatory framework is absent, and accountable rule enforcement mechanisms are underdeveloped (Amorós et al., 2019). Entrepreneurs in emerging economies thus face more uncertainty and risk than those in more developed economies (Puffer et al., 2010). We believe emerging economies provide an interesting setting to study the interplay between micro (individual-level) and macro (environment) factors, given individuals in these economies need to overcome both resource constraints and institutional hurdles to pursue entrepreneurship (Lim et al., 2016). Importantly, the complex interplay between the individual and the institutional context makes it ‘improbable that entrepreneurship can be explained solely by reference to a characteristic of certain people independent of the situations in which they find themselves’ (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000, p. 218). Similarly, Armanios et al. (2017) explain how institutional intermediaries can be leveraged by emerging