 Re-reading entrepreneurship in the hidden economy: commercial or social entrepreneurs?Colin Williams and Sara Nadin International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2011, vol. 14, issue 4, 441-455 Abstract: Since the turn of the millennium, a small but growing stream of the entrepreneurship literature has drawn attention to how a large proportion of entrepreneurs start-up their enterprises operating in the hidden economy on a wholly or partially off-the-books basis. This paper evaluates critically the assumption that these hidden entrepreneurs are engaged in commercial entrepreneurship. Reporting evidence from a 2002-2003 survey involving interviews with 28 early-stage entrepreneurs operating in the hidden economy in English rural localities, the finding is that hidden entrepreneurs range from rational economic actors pursuing a purely commercial goal through to purely social entrepreneurs pursuing solely social logics, with the majority somewhere in-between combining both commercial and social goals. The outcome is a call to begin mapping the heterogeneous logics of hidden entrepreneurs in different contexts. Keywords: informal economy; shadow economy; underground economy; commercial entrepreneurship; social entrepreneurship; enterprise culture; nascent entrepreneurship; enterprise development; hidden economy; hidden entrepreneurs. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:14:y:2011:i:4:p:441-455 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd |
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