Understanding the Firm in the Informal Economy: A Research Agenda
Amanda Haarman (),
Marcus M. Larsen () and
Rebecca Namatovu ()
Additional contact information
Amanda Haarman: Copenhagen Business School
Marcus M. Larsen: Copenhagen Business School
Rebecca Namatovu: Copenhagen Business School
The European Journal of Development Research, 2022, vol. 34, issue 6, No 16, 3005-3025
Abstract:
Abstract Informal firms prevail and preoccupy a dominant share of the economic activity in many developing countries. Yet, few attempts have been made to systematically integrate dominant theories of the firm with the empirical importance of informal enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to review established theories of the informal economy and the firm, and to explore potential for cross-fertilization to better understand the nature of the firm in the informal economy. We seek to convey two basic points: First, as informal economy firms vary in form, structure, and strategies, a systematic inquiry of their heterogeneous and idiosyncratic nature is warranted. Second, significant opportunities for future development research reside at the interface between existing theoretical explanations of the informal economy (dualistic, structuralist legal, and voluntarist theories) and dominant theories of the firm (contractual and competence theories). We discuss in detail three main themes for future development research seeking to understand informal economy firms: (i) Contract mechanisms and enforcement; (ii) Learning strategies; and (iii) Resource and capability development.
Keywords: Informal economy; Theories of the firm; Theories of informality; Research agenda; O170; M100; L250 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)
Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41287-022-00508-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:34:y:2022:i:6:d:10.1057_s41287-022-00508-2
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/41287/PS2
DOI: 10.1057/s41287-022-00508-2
Access Statistics for this article
The European Journal of Development Research is currently edited by Spencer Henson and Natalia Lorenzoni
More articles in The European Journal of Development Research from Palgrave Macmillan, European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().