When formal institutions impede entrepreneurship: how and why refugees establish new ventures in the Dadaab refugee camps. Issue 9 (19th October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: de la Chaux, Marlen; Haugh, Helen
• Is Part Of: Entrepreneurship and regional development. Volume 32:Issue 9/10(2020)
• Page Start: 827
• Page End: 851
• Publication Date: 2020-10-19
• Subjects: Refugee camps -- refugee camp entrepreneurs -- institutional misalignment -- formal institutions -- informal institutions; Industrial promotion -- Periodicals; Entrepreneurship -- Periodicals; Regional planning -- Periodicals; 338.04
• DOI: 10.1080/08985626.2020.1789752
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0898-5626

Abstract

ABSTRACT: For this paper we investigated refugee entrepreneurship in the Dadaab refugee camps, Kenya, a place where humanitarian aid practices and domestic legislation impede entrepreneurship, yet hundreds of new ventures have been established by refugees. The analysis finds that refugee camp entrepreneurs erode formal institutions, recombine conducive aspects of both formal and informal institutions, and exploit the advantages of institutional misalignment. We explain how entrepreneurs strategically maintain rather than overcome institutional misalignment for venture creation. Second, we show how self-determination, rather than mere subsistence or necessity, is an important yet often overlooked motivator for entrepreneurship in low and lower middle-income contexts.