Evaluating entrepreneurs in the shadow economy: economic or social entrepreneurship?

Colin Williams and Sara Nadin

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2011, vol. 11, issue 1, 20-33

Abstract: Recently, a growing stream of literature on entrepreneurship has revealed that many entrepreneurs start-up their enterprises operating wholly or partially off-the-books. This paper evaluates critically the assumption that these shadow entrepreneurs are engaged in for-profit economic entrepreneurship. Reporting a 2005 survey involving interviews with 43 shadow entrepreneurs in North Nottinghamshire in the UK, the finding is that shadow entrepreneurs range from purely rational economic actors pursuing for-profit logics through to purely social entrepreneurs pursuing only social logics, with the majority somewhere in-between. The result is a call for more nuanced understandings of the heterogeneous logics of shadow entrepreneurs.

Keywords: informal economy; shadow economy; underground economy; commercial entrepreneurship; social entrepreneurship; nascent entrepreneurship; enterprise culture; enterprise development; shadow entrepreneurs; off-the-books. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijmede:v:11:y:2011:i:1:p:20-33

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