Mirela Xheneti

EU enlargement effects on cross-border informal entrepreneurial activities

Borderlands, as spaces of various forms of entrepreneurial activities, offer rich examples of informal entrepreneurial activities that depend on the border location to be developed and sustained. Although the socioeconomic contributions of informal activities have been widely acknowledged, little research has been conducted on the ways that enlargement of the European Union (EU), by affecting the openness/closedness of borders, affected the nature and extent of cross-border informal entrepreneurial activities (IEAs). Recognizing the heterogeneity of border regions, in terms of formal and social institutional structures, linguistics and ethnicity, the paper offers a nuanced and extended understanding of the difference the geography of borders, broadly defined, makes to the diversity and persistence/disappearance of cross-border IEAs since EU enlargement. Using qualitative data from interviews collected with households involved in cross-border IEAs in several EU border regions, the paper indicates that cross-border IEAs have a time dimension, reflected in the pre- and post-enlargement changes to the intensity of these activities, as well as a regional dimension, reflected in various dichotomies such as impoverished/affluent, socioculturally proximate/distant and hard/soft borders, reflected in the forms, enablers and constraints of such activities. The paper illustrates how the spatial, economic, institutional and sociocultural characteristics of a context overlap, dominate or recede at different points in time to facilitate/inhibit different forms of entrepreneurial behaviour and to encourage the involvement of, or empower, different groups of people. Thus, context, in all its dimensions, remains an important factor for spatial and temporal explanations of cross-border IEAs as particular forms of entrepreneurial activity.

Institutional constraints and SME growth in post-communist Albania

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate business growth in post-communist Albania using an institutional perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes an institutional perspective, which emphasises the role of institutional change in enabling/constraining business growth whilst allowing for entrepreneurial objectives and motivations to be taken into account. The analysis is based on firm-level data collected through a survey questionnaire in April-July 2004. The paper uses principal components analysis and a regression model to explain the factors that determine the pace of business growth of small firms. Findings – The analysis offers important insights into the nature of entrepreneurship in a post-communist setting. The age of the firm, the age, education, qualifications and work orientation of the entrepreneur, insufficient information and corruption, explain the differential growth of firms. Older entrepreneurs grow faster suggesting unfulfilled aspirations during communism as well as their access to wider professional, social and possibly also political connections. The positive effect of corruption on business growth suggests that an ability to cope with a corrupt environment has been a necessary entrepreneurial skill during a period of chaotic change in social and formal institutions that has characterized transition in Albania. Originality/value – This research can be of special interest to studies of entrepreneurship in institutional transformation contexts, and it contributes especially to the accumulation of knowledge on transition economies by looking at the little researched case of post communist Albania.

From Discourse to Implementation: Enterprise Policy Development in Postcommunist Albania

We examine enterprise policy development in Albania, a neglected postcommunist context. Using a policy transfer approach, we explore whether the Albanian government has adopted, or adapted, enterprise policies originating elsewhere, what this has meant in practice, and how and why such processes have occurred. Enterprise policy development in Albania can be conceptualised as a process of indirect coercive transfer through transnational communication mechanisms—policy discourses, target setting, monitoring, evaluation, and ‘best practice’—that disguise the power relations in which they are embedded. The transition from adoption at the level of discourse (soft transfer) to implementation of programmes, actions, and tools (hard transfer) is shaped by knowledge, finance and legitimacy ‘deficits’, and communist-era legacies. The paper develops a deeper understanding of enterprise policy processes, their drivers, and constraints in postcommunist contexts, addressing a gap in the transition literature, by investigating these processes as complex and crowded policy spaces from design through to implementation.

REENACTING CONTEXTUAL BOUNDARIES - ENTREPRENEURIAL RESOURCEFULNESS IN CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENTS

In this chapter, we advance an understanding of entrepreneurial resourcefulness in relation to context by focusing on challenging and sometimes outright hostile environments and the way they shape, and are shaped by, entrepreneurial resourcefulness. Drawing on selective evidence from several projects in post-socialist countries in both Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia and other published research covering these countries, we argue for contextualized conceptualizations of resourcefulness. More specifically we emphasize that temporal, historical, socio-spatial and institutional contexts are antecedents and boundaries for entrepreneurial behaviour, whilst at the same time allowing for human agency. This is visible in individuals’ actions to negotiate, re-enact and cross these boundaries; and as a result, intentionally or inadvertently contributing to changing contexts. We suggest that resourcefulness is a dynamic concept encompassing multiple practices, which change over time, and it results from a close interplay of multiple contexts with entrepreneurial behaviour. We also propose that from a theoretical point of view, resourcefulness not only needs to be contextualized, but it also needs to be explored together with its contextual outcomes – the value it creates and adds at different levels of society.

Exploring the Role of the Business Support Infrastructure in Albania: The Need for a Rethink?

The role of entrepreneurship and small businesses in economic development has received particular attention in the postcommunist countries. Transition studies have recently emphasised the role that institutions play in orienting the entrepreneurial spirit toward capital formation, investment, export expansion, and generation of new jobs, and fair competition which will lead to sustainable economic growth. The author discusses the business-support infrastructure in Albania and the operational issues it faces. Interview data have been collected from various actors involved in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the country. The combination of the interview content with background information on each of the organisations has highlighted various issues such as the need for greater exposure of enterprises to business opportunities through the promotion of role-model businesses, the need to respond to the specific needs of enterprises in terms of skills and knowledge, and the need for a wider access through a better sectoral and regional coverage.

Contexts of enterprise policy-making: an institutional perspective

Abstract This paper advances our understanding of policy formulation, exploring how the particular institutional dynamics between the transnational and national levels of enterprise policy-making affect policy choices made by governments and consequently their outcomes. The paper argues that policy development occurs within a framework of dominating assumptions on enterprise, influential academic/policy communities and lesson-drawing from other countries’ experiences, which have led to a privileging of the transnational when making policy choices. Empirically, the paper draws on a post-socialist country case – Albania, and uses interviews with policy actors and documentary data from national governments and international organizations. The paper explores the dynamics involved, and the actors that shape, policy formulation and makes two contributions to the literature. First, it provides a conceptual framework on how to analyse policy formulation, extending recent work on the link between policy formulation and the intended outcomes of policies. Second, it offers a more nuanced conceptualization of enterprise policy formulation, arguing that policy formulation reflects the changing configurations of ideas, policy tools and resources, and actors involved in the process.

Value of Formalization for Women Entrepreneurs in Developing Contexts: A Review and Research Agenda: Women Entrepreneurs in Developing Contexts

The informal economy (IE) has attracted the attention of policy makers, practitioners and academics alike, reflected both in the growing number of publications spanning different disciplinary foci and in the recent policy emphasis on the formalisation of IE (ILO 2014, Sepulveda and Syrett 2007, Williams and Nadin 2014). The emphasis on formalisation reflects the move beyond traditional explanations of IE as lacking sustainability and stability associated with being a remnant of economic development (Webb et al. 2009) to appreciate its permanence and significance, and its links with, and interdependencies on, the formal economy (Castells and Portes 1989, Meagher 2013, Chen 2007). The IE, broadly accepted as ‘the diversified set of economic activities, enterprises, jobs, and workers that are not regulated or protected by the state’ (Chen 2012: 8), contributes substantially to national GDPs of countries at different developmental stages, accounting as much as 40-60% of the GDPs of developing countries (Godfrey 2011, Schneider 2002). The IE also attracts a disproportionately high number of women, whose participation in these often vulnerable forms of (self)employment is frequently portrayed as motivated by poverty or ‘involuntary exclusion’ from the formal labour market and concerned with sustaining their family’s livelihood (Franck 2012, Bushell 2008, Williams and Gurtoo 2011). These views often ignore the gendered constraints on women’s entrepreneurial activities and their reproduction through social norms, codes of behaviour and practices in specific socio-cultural contexts and the barriers to women’s sustainable economic activity through formalisation. While IE and women entrepreneurship (WE) have both received separate prior attention, we believe their insights are valuable in widening the theoretical lens on the perceived value of formalisation by placing centre-stage the tensions inherent in, and the institutional dynamics affecting women’s choices in developing contexts. The data available about the drivers and barriers to formalisation in relation to gender is scant with the few existing studies often being narrowly conceptualised, fragmented or lacking in rigour (Chant and Pedwell 2008). This is partly related to contrasting emphases on women’s entrepreneurial activities in IE and WE literature as we succinctly summarise below.

Cross-Border Entrepreneurship and Economic Development in Europe's Border Regions

This volume is concerned with entrepreneurship and economic development in Europe’s border regions, focusing on the effects of EU enlargement on these regions, both within the EU and in neighbouring countries. Particular attention is paid to cross border entrepreneurial activity.

Formalizing women entrepreneurs in Kathmandu, Nepal: Pathway towards empowerment?

Purpose Women’s economic empowerment through entrepreneurship is increasingly being recognised as significant to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, women entrepreneurship in developing countries is characterised by an overrepresentation in the informal economy and exposure to high levels of gender disparities. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether formalisation of women’s entrepreneurial activities in the informal economy supports SDGs through ensuring empowerment and equality. Design/methodology/approach The research adopts a qualitative research design to explore the empowerment outcomes of the formalisation of women’s entrepreneurial activities in the informal economy of Kathmandu, Nepal. Data were collected through interviews with 30 women entrepreneurs engaged in a mix of formal and informal entrepreneurial activities. Findings By using Mayoux’s (1998) framework of empowerment at the individual, household and community level, the findings show the variation in empowerment outcomes as a result of women’s diverse motivations for engaging in entrepreneurship. Whilst informal entrepreneurial activities improve women’s confidence and life aspirations, they have limited potential in lifting women out of poverty and enable them to significantly challenge gender relations in the society. Formalization does further empower women at the household and community level but this is primarily the case of younger and more educated women. Originality/value The research contributes to the debates on entrepreneurship as “emancipation” and more specifically, on whether formalization contributes to the SDGs by furthering gender equality and empowerment. Formalization policies need to acknowledge the heterogeneity of women entrepreneurs.

Value for Whom? Exploring the Value of Informal Entrepreneurial Activities in Post-Socialist Contexts

Purpose The aim of this chapter is to advance an understanding of the value of informal entrepreneurial activities in relation to context using an institutional perspective arguing that heterogeneity in institutional embeddedness affects the value individuals attach to entrepreneurial actions. Methodology We draw empirically on 100 interviews with individuals engaged in informal cross border activities in eight EU border regions across four countries that have experienced changes of regulatory, economic and social nature. Findings The analysis offers important insights on how three institutional logics – market, state and community, guide entrepreneurial action at the micro-level and affect value creation. Our evidence supports the use of these activities to fulfil important economic functions and to nurture family and social relations in closely-knit communities. Differences in the embeddedness of individuals in each of these logics contributed to their perception of the value of their informal entrepreneurial actions along economic and social dimensions at the individual, community and society level and also at the short and long run. Implications Our main contributions lie in extending discussions of economic and social value of informal entrepreneurial activities and in providing a dynamic view of the value of informal entrepreneurial activities that accounts for changes or shifts in institutional logics, the responses they generate and the value created as a result. Keywords: entrepreneurial behaviour, informality, post-socialist context, value, institutions