مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد توسعه کارآفرینی دیجیتالی زنان – الزویر 2019

This paper examines the emergence of digital entrepreneurship in the context of emerging economies. Given that these economies generally lack a well-developed institutional framework, we draw on the concept of institutional voids as our theoretical lens. We argue that digital entrepreneurship facilitates the navigation and bridging of socio-cultural institutional voids but also provides opportunities for entrepreneurs to directly and indirectly alter the existing institutional context. We illustrate these arguments by drawing upon six biographical narrations of female digital entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia. Accordingly, through our development of a multi-level model, we make explicit the two-way causal interaction between entrepreneurial action, institution altering behaviour and the social and cultural context, thus providing a framework for future research.

Introduction

Institutional voids emerge when there is a complete lack of, or underdeveloped, institutional framework to support entrepreneurship (Elert and Henrekson, 2017). The presence of institutional voids is apparent in limited policies, infrastructural supports or an unsupportive culture, which act to constrain entrepreneurial processes and outcomes (Bruton et al., 2010; Spigel and Harrison, 2018). Such institutional voids are common in emerging economies characterised by newly established commercial practices and social norms (Manolova et al., 2006). Prior studies have highlighted the need for supportive policies and infrastructure to promote and enable entrepreneurship (Giacomin et al., 2011). However, the impact of social and cultural practices on entrepreneurship remains underexplored. Culture is defined as patterns of thinking, feeling and acting which are learned and shared by others (Hofstede, 2001). It impacts entrepreneurship by defining who is deemed socially ‘legitimate’ as an entrepreneur and thus facilitates the development of pro-entrepreneurial values and patterns of thinking (Krueger et al., 2013). For instance, Marlow and McAdam (2015) argue that in societies where social norms associate entrepreneurial activity with masculinity, female entrepreneurs lack legitimacy which may subsequently reduce their access to resources. Krueger et al. (2013:704) argue that ‘how’ and ‘why’ cultural practices, and underlying values and norms, matter for entrepreneurial action remains underexplored and requires greater empirical attention.