The tangled historical roots of entrepreneurial growth aspirations

• Date: 01 December 2020
• Author: Saul Estrin,Tomasz Mickiewicz,Stephanie Decker
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1348

RESEARCH ARTICLE

The tangled historical roots of entrepreneurial

growth aspirations

Stephanie Decker

1

| Saul Estrin

2

| Tomasz Mickiewicz

1

1

Aston University, Birmingham, UK

2

London School of Economics, London, UK

Correspondence

Saul Estrin, London School of Economics,

Houghton Street, London WC2A2AE, UK.

Email: s.estrin@lse.ac.uk

Abstract

Research Summary: We consider whatconfigurations of his-

torical and geographic dimensions influence entrepreneurial

growth aspirations (EGA). Our theoretical framework com-

bines geography (coastal location, resource dependence),

long-term colonial history (ethnic heterogeneity, legal origins),

and postcolonialhistory (low levels of conflict and population

displacement; not having “bad neighbors”). We employ

abductive reasoning to link the social science and historical

literatures viaanalytically structured histories of Ghana, Nige-

ria, and Angola. Next, we undertake a fuzzy set qualitative

comparative analysis on sub-Saharan Africa countries to

investigate which particular configurations of these dimen-

sions are important for EGA. We demonstrate the importance

of configurations over individual variables and add context-

bound dimensions to the study of entrepreneurship in devel-

oping countries, through historical analysis.

Managerial Summary: Our analysis may offer entrepreneurs

a template for identifying potential opportunities and threats

in order to calibrate their strategies for scaling up their ven-

ture in sub-Saharan Africa. We argue that environments rich

in entrepreneurial growth opportunities are associated with

configurations where negative aspects are more than

Received: 15 June 2018 Revised: 5 December 2019 Accepted: 29 December 2019 Published on: 28 February 2020

DOI: 10.1002/sej.1348

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use,

distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

© 2020 The Authors. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Strategic Management

Society.

616 Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. 2020;14:616–638.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/sej

compensated by positive ones. For Botswana, the low levels

of internal conflict compensate for unfavorable location. For

Angola, the positive impact of coastal location and relatively

low ethnic heterogeneity counterbalance the negative effect

of resource rents. Resource-driven economies are more

entrepreneurial: better economic opportunities can some-

times result from having extractive industries. For African

entrepreneurs it is not only relevant what happens in their

own countries, as their opportunities are directly affected by

economic or political turmoil in neighboring countries.

KEYWORDS

Africa, entrepreneurship, global entrepreneurship monitor, history,

qualitative comparative analysis

1|INTRODUCTION

Institutional environments affect the motivation of individuals to engage in entrepreneurship (Baumol, 1990), and,

importantly, their entrepreneurial growth aspirations (EGA; Autio & Acs, 2010; Bowen & DeClercq, 2008; Estrin,

Korosteleva, & Mickiewicz, 2013; Levie & Autio, 2011). However, these environments have complex historical roots,

and in this article, we advance the understanding of this relationship by looking at the separate roles of both longer-

and shorter-term historical factors.

North's work on institutions and development (1990, 2006) already notes the potential significance of history

for understanding the characteristics of economic activity including entrepreneurship. However, this relationship

needs to be refined because history is interpreted as stretching back centuries but not all institutions have such deep

roots. Moreover, history is not destiny (La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, & Shleifer, 2008); and institutional contexts can

change dramatically both in the long run and in the short to medium term (Braudel, 1995; North, 2006). Furthermore,

North based his analysis on an interpretation of how institutions had evolved in Western Europe, though much

entrepreneurial activity takes place in parts of the world, mainly developing economies, which are currently only

poorly reflected in history-conscious entrepreneurial theory.

1

Hence, we contribute context-bound insight to entre-

preneurial theory (Tsui, 2004; Welter & Gartner, 2016) that more commonly researched contexts such as North

America and Europe would not allow us to recognize. Moreover, the focus on historical legacies in the institutional

environment also engages with calls to consider historical reasoning and research as source for new theorizing

(Gartner, Jones, Kirsch, Wadhwani, & Welter, forthcoming; Wadhwani, 2010, 2016a; Wadhwani & Lubinski, 2017).

In order to focus on the type of entrepreneurial activity, which significantly impacts economic development and

growth, our analysis of the relationship between history, institutions and entrepreneurship is based on the finely

grained notion of high-growth aspiration entrepreneurship (HGAE). Necessity entrepreneurship and self-

employment are often conflated with low-growth aspiration entrepreneurship and are the predominant forms of

entrepreneurial activity in developing countries. They may generate some income and employment for the entrepre-

neurs and their close friends and family, yet their impact on economic growth is very limited (Acs, Desai, & Klapper,

2008; Estrin, Mickiewicz, Stephan, & Wright, 2018; Henrekson and Stenkula, 2016). This contrasts with HGAE, in

which the entrepreneur's objective is to accumulate the resources and the competitive advantages required to

appropriate the full value from identified opportunities (Bjørnskov & Foss, 2013; Hitt, Ireland, Camp, & Sexton,

2001; Hitt, Ireland, Sirmon, & Trahms, 2011; Ireland, Hitt, & Sirmon, 2003; Kuratko & Audretsch, 2009). HGAE can

DECKER ET AL.617