“Entrepreneurship in and Around Institutional Voids…” by Mair

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Identifying Information

The article in question was published in 2009 in the journal of business venturing by Johanna Mair and Ignasi Marti. The purpose of the study was to identify the institutional voids in developing countries and illustrate the approaches used by entrepreneurial actors to address it. The term “institutional void” refers to the scarcity or absence of institutions offering support to entrepreneurs entering the markets of developing countries. The article is a case study based primarily on field interviews. The authors do not specify the theoretical framework. However, field interviews as a primary source of data suggest the use of the epistemological approach.

Research Questions

The study aims at answering the following research questions:

What kinds of resources do institutional managers use?
What strategies, apart from skills, are enacted to use these resources?
How do institutional entrepreneurs perform the institutional work in the conditions of constrained resources? (Mair & Marti, 2009)

Research Design and Methodology

The method augments the studies on the impact of rules and institutions on entrepreneurial activity by specifying the attempts to change these rules by actors. The method is suitable for the purpose as means to study phenomena that are not fully understood and address the gaps in existing research. The authors ensure the realism of the method by including a narrative account which corroborates personal perceptions with key historical events and facts. Therefore, it is possible to state that critical realism philosophy was used in the study. Finally, the method is suitable for identifying specific mechanisms of institutional entrepreneurship, ensuring the consistency of results with the research questions.

The question of validity was addressed by corroborating the findings at each stage of the analysis with independent experts and BRAC managers, as well as field observations and contacts with target groups. The paper does not specify limitations of the study. It can be argued that some of them, such as the use of English as a preferred language of the interviews within the organization, were left unaddressed. On the other hand, targeting the ultra-poor population segment addressed one of the major limitations.

The article does not list ethical considerations or means of addressing them. The data collection process description does not specify whether informed consent was obtained from the participants. The information in the article is insufficient to conclude on the compliance of the study with tri-council guidelines.

Research Design in Details

The research design and its methodology, which were discussed in the previous slides, were shaped by the authors’ initial purpose. They intended to target the poorest segment in Bangladesh due to the immense importance of the problem of poverty in this country. Also, they justified the employment of this particular methodology by two reasons: qualitative studies are largely used to improve the comprehension of understudied phenomena, and also case studies are suitable for the investigation of the institutional entrepreneurship process.

The Gap in the Study and Its Limitations

The study’s gap is concerned with the fact that only one type of poor citizens of Bangladesh is being analyzed: the ultra-poor people (Mair & Marti, 2009). Research would have been complete is all of the categories singled out by the authors had been assessed.

The study has the following limitations:

The biggest shortcoming of the study is its design: a case study enables the thorough examination of the researched issue, but it does not provide any opportunities for comparing the issue in question with similar problems
If the authors compared at least two segments in Bangladesh or one segment from two different countries, the reliability of results would have been higher

Contribution to the Current Knowledge

It is possible to state that the article contributes significantly to the current knowledge on the topic. The authors imposed and successfully achieved three objectives, which are represented on this slide. Each of these objectives contributes to theoretical and practical aspects of a highly important problem of institutional voids. Therefore, one can argue that the authors were capable of creating a significant contribution to the topic.

Interpretation of Findings

The research team was able to answer the research question by compiling an exhaustive list of approaches used by the local actors in the absence of support from institutions. Due to the fact that the study was not aimed at finding a specific relationship or a cause and its exploratory nature, the concept of alternative explanations is irrelevant to the findings. Finally, it is necessary to point out that the findings are of limited applicability to other populations due to the involvement of multiple cultural, social, political, and market condition, thus limiting its generalizability.

Writing Quality

The article is reflective of the genre of social studies. The information on institutions and target population is presented in sufficient detail. All aspects of the study are fully addressed and explained. None of the sections features excessive or insufficient description. The information is laid out in a logical manner. A wide range of sources ensures the objectivity of the conclusions. No signs of research bias are identified.

Value of the Study

The study tackles a significant problem of poverty in developing countries. The contribution of the article is mainly theoretical. First, it aligns the existing literature with the institutional theory by describing institutional gap as one of the opportunity spaces for entrepreneurial actors. Second, it addresses the issue of voids by highlighting approaches used to overcome the limitations. Third, and, perhaps, most importantly, the study advances the current knowledge of mechanisms used to reduce poverty, which can potentially improve the welfare of people from developing countries.

Opportunities for Future Research

Taking into consideration the findings of this research study, it becomes possible to perform a more thorough analysis of the regions where people live in poverty and extreme poverty. Mair and Marti (2009) have offered a solid base of reforms needed to take with the aim of enhancing business opportunities in poor areas. Mair and Marti (2009) have introduced a new kind of actor in the arena of development – the social entrepreneur. With the help of their suggestion, it is possible to analyze the relationships between the micro actions of social entrepreneurs and the macro structures in the future.

Reference

Mair, J., & Marti, I. (2009). Entrepreneurship in and around institutional voids: A case study from Bangladesh. Journal of Business Venturing, 24(5), 419-435.

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