Transitional entrepreneurship: unleashing entrepreneurial potential across numerous challenging contexts

• Published in: New England journal of entrepreneurship 2023-11, Vol.26 (2), p.78-87
• Main Authors: Javadian, Golshan, Nair, Anil, Ahlstrom, David, Moghaddam, Kaveh, Chen, Li-Wei, Lee, Younggeun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cultural values; Diaspora; Economic growth; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Immigrants; Innovations; Minority & ethnic groups; Social change; Social exclusion; Streaming media; Women
• ISSN: 1550-333X; 2574-8904; 2574-8904
• DOI: 10.1108/NEJE-12-2023-103

Entrepreneurship is not only a critical driver of economic growth and social development (Ahlstrom et al., 2019; McCloskey, 2010) but can also represent a life-changing transition for most, if not all, of the entrepreneurs themselves. According to the US Department of Commerce, in 2018, there were 9.7m minority-owned firms with US$1.78tn in revenue, which created 9.4m jobs (Minority Business Development Agency, 2022), all of which played a role in creating substantial regional economic growth (Tomizawa et al., 2020). The authors acknowledge that entrepreneurship is a key engine of poverty reduction and economic growth but identify critical factors that limit the contribution of entrepreneurs from economically distressed communities to economic and social development. Examining three decades of research, the authors identify four clusters of factors that lead to entrepreneurial underperformance at the BOP: individual-level factors that restrain entrepreneurial activities within the BOP context, gender inequality at the BOP hindering female entrepreneurship, insufficient institutional support holding back entrepreneurial activities in the BOP and inherent problems with business development initiatives that harm the poor due to conflicts between market logic and social logic.