Institutionalizing entrepreneurial expertise in subsistence economies

Abstract

This paper focuses on a broad and emergent set of organizations operating in subsistence economies that seek to promote and support new venture activity. We label these organizations, Entrepreneurship Enabling Organizations (EEOs) and argue for their central role in addressing institutional voids confronting entrepreneurs. Specifically, we propose that EEOs’ provision of venture scripts, which are sequentially ordered expert behaviors appropriate for the creation of new ventures, is critical to creating successful new ventures as well as addressing institutional voids in these economies. We use social cognitive and institutional theories to explain how social connections and interactions introduce and begin to institutionalize venture scripts.