Heterodox entrepreneurial ecosystems: Informal cross border trade and its paradoxical tensions
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This conceptual paper aims to merge the previously separate research streams of entrepreneurial ecosystems and informal entrepreneurship. Informal cross border trade is selected as a prototype of informal entrepreneurship. The paper makes three contributions. First, drawing from orthodox entrepreneurial ecosystems, it dissects participants , places , policies , processes , products , proponents , and push-pull considerations underpinning informal cross border trade. Second, it underscores the cultural -, ideological -, otherness -, and role and norm heterodoxies evident in informal cross border trade. Third, the paper describes four paradoxes - bribery , empowerment , regulation , and visibility - which maintain the heterodox entrepreneurial ecosystem in balance. With this, the conceptual paper opens a new line of enquiry on heterodox entrepreneurial ecosystems, defined as juxtapositions of actors, factors, ideologies, and places facilitating productive entrepreneurship through balancing paradoxical tensions . • The ecosystem perspective is applied to informal entrepreneurship. • Informal cross border trade is chosen as an exemplar of informal entrepreneurship. • Key actors and factors are identified. • Heterodoxy typifies the ecosystem for informal cross border trade. • Paradoxical tensions keep the ecosystem intact.
Author: Eldrede T. Kahiya
Institution: University of Canterbury
Language: English
Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,890
OpenAlex ID: W4409178953