A Literature Review of E-Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies: Positioning Research on Latin American Digital Startups

Gerardo Quinones (), Brian Nicholson and Richard Heeks
Additional contact information
Gerardo Quinones: Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
Brian Nicholson: Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
Richard Heeks: University of Manchester

A chapter in Entrepreneurship in BRICS, 2015, pp 179-208 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter critically reviews literature on e-entrepreneurship in order to position future empirical research with a focus on emerging markets (The terms “emerging economies”, “emerging countries”, or “developing economies” are used interchangeably and refer to the list of countries named as such by the International Monetary Fund (World Economic Outlook. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 2013)) in general and in Latin America in particular. The term ‘e-entrepreneurship’ has been used to describe the creation of different e-businesses by both start-ups and established companies. Thus, the concept of Digital Start-up (DS) as a specific unit of study of e-entrepreneurship is presented. DSs are defined as start-ups born on the internet to sell only digital products/services exclusively online. The emergence of this new breed of enterprises is opening doors for entrepreneurs to enter new markets with an explosive potential for growth, as demonstrated by the cases of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others. This phenomenon acted as a catalyst for a new entrepreneurial ecosystem in emerging markets supported by both private and public entities. However, there are still very limited signs of success outside of the United States, Israel, and Europe. The literature reveals that the lifecycle and ecosystems of DSs have been extensively researched in developed countries; however, there is a relative paucity in the context of emerging economies. E-entrepreneurship research is grouped into six categories: e-business models, digital economy, entrepreneurship, business ecosystems, innovation, and e-entrepreneurship. Relevant theoretical frameworks and their application to DSs are explored. The chapter concludes that gaps remain in the literature on e-entrepreneurship in the context of emerging economies and questions for future research are presented.

Keywords: Digital start-up; Business ecosystems; E-business; E-entrepreneurship; Innovation; Emerging economies; Latin America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:spr:sprchp:978-3-319-11412-5_11

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319114125

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-11412-5_11

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().