African Women in the Entrepreneurial Landscape: reconsidering the formal and informal sectors

Abstract

O trabalho Cadernos de Estudos Africanos está licenciado com uma Licença Creative Commons-Atribuição-NãoComercial-CompartilhaIgual 4.0 Internacional.

Struggling with social capital: Pakistani women micro entrepreneurs’ challenges in acquiring resources

“…Those with more weak ties are more likely to move beyond their immediate circle and will therefore have access to variegated information and resources. Research on female entrepreneurs in Africa has shown that women's networks are more extensive compared to men's networks (Spring 2009). Women entrepreneurs might have different social networks: they have more family and relatives among their strong ties compared to men.…”

“…Male entrepreneurs have more weak ties with partners, colleagues, or ethnic group members. Thus, the different networking behaviour among men and women results in variations in strong and weak ties, resulting in differences in business performance as women, due to their preference for strong ties and limited ability to form weak ties, are excluded from more rewarding business networks (Spring 2009).…”

The influence of informal institutions on informal sector entrepreneurship: a study of Nigeria's hand-woven textile industry

“…Entrepreneurial activities in the informal sector are taken for granted by the government particularly the local government in the developing countries (Spring, 2009). We however, agreed with Ngoasong and Kimbu (2016) that government can bring the informal activities to formal sector despite the challenges of regulatory and institutional difficulties.…”

Drivers and deterrents of entrepreneurial enterprise in the risk‐prone Global South

“…We avoid conceptualizing entrepreneurial activities as either formal or informal, legal or illegal, because most enterprises surveyed did interact, although intermittently, with the state apparatus (cf. De Soto 1989; Spring ). Operating within these “economic interstices” is not always by choice, leading to both opportunities and challenges, such as flexibility (Smart and Smart ) or regulatory confusion and vulnerability stemming from constantly shifting business policies and political situations (Ferguson ; Galemba ; Nordstrom ).…”

“…To build a complete picture of entrepreneurship in Guinea‐Bissau, we collected data from a diverse set of entrepreneurs both in size and business type to capture the full range of entrepreneurial possibilities (cf. Spring ).…”