Enterprise and entrepreneurship in peripheral contexts: experiences and prospects from the caribbean small island developing states

Abstract

The transformative effect of entrepreneurship has been well-documented. Indeed, entrepreneurship has been linked to the growth and prosperity of nations, contributing to the sustainable development of various sectors. Developments globally have seen growing attention to the transformational effect of entrepreneurship and its potential in developing and emerging contexts. However, while many experiences have been covered, those of some developing and emerging contexts have received far less attention. Among these under-covered contexts is that of Caribbean Small Island Developing states (SIDS). It is important to note that the development of entrepreneurship as a field can benefit from a broader understanding of more contexts. This special issue is an opportunity to advance understanding of and the dimensions of entrepreneurship in a largely grey area in the literature, the Caribbean Region. This maiden paper plays a strategic role in situating the papers which follow in a larger body of research and practice relating to entrepreneurship with a focus on the Commonwealth Caribbean SIDS. Perhaps more importantly, the approach is not simply to introduce the papers but more strategically to provide rich contextual material on the quality of entrepreneurship in the region, which then forms the backdrop for the remaining papers. A comprehensive over-view of entrepreneurship is offered, alongside a discussion of some of the historical and contemporary developments, while highlighting the specific character of entrepreneurship in a region that is largely shaped by forces which have in many ways rendered it peripheral to development. Even so, the approach is not pessimistic. As such the paper ends with a demonstration of how an understanding of entrepreneurship in the Caribbean can contribute to and inform the development of practice and theorising, more generally, including advancing an understanding of developments not just in entrepreneurship but in the broader field of International Business. Indeed, the experiences of under[1]covered regions such as these are useful in that they offer novel testing ground for emerging theories and assumptions and can make relevant contributions to the development of entrepreneurship as a still emerging field of research.