Promoting entrepreneurship to alleviate poverty in India: An overview of government schemes,private‐sector programs,and initiatives in the citizens' sector

In recent years, entrepreneurship has achieved significance as a driver of economic growth and poverty alleviation. This article focuses on various initiatives and entities that promote capacity building and entrepreneurship development among the poor in India and pays special attention to examining the ways in which these entities can better coordinate their efforts. The article first reviews the general literature on entrepreneurship and poverty eradication followed by a conceptual framework that models the efforts of the Indian government, the private sector, and the citizens' sector in promoting entrepreneurship and capacity building. This conceptual framework is utilized to discuss efforts of social entrepreneurs and self‐help groups (SHGs) in India as well as to present a general sectoral assessment of the poverty‐alleviation schemes in the subcontinent. The article's conclusions emphasize that neither markets alone nor governments alone are enough to eradicate poverty, especially in the Indian context. Instead, a trisectoral approach that recognizes the complementarities between the government, the private sector, and the citizens' sector and encourages these sectors to collaborate may be vital to the common goal of capacity building among India's poor. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Entrepreneurship as a solution to poverty in developed economies

While entrepreneurship in developing economies at the base of the pyramid is receiving growing attention, scholars have devoted less effort to exploring entrepreneurship as a solution to poverty in advanced economies. Yet, poverty rates have not meaningfully changed in most developed economies in 50 years, and the income gap between rich and poor continues to widen. In this article, we examine entrepreneurship as a source of empowerment for the economically disadvantaged. We explore the nature of poverty and its implications for various aspects of entrepreneurship, identify problematic aspects of the typical low-income startup, and present the SPODER conceptual framework for fostering entrepreneurial development among the poor: (S) supportive infrastructure, (P) preparation of the entrepreneur; (O) expanded opportunity horizons; (D) finding sources of differentiation; (E) a well-designed economic model; and (R) leveraging community resources. We conclude by drawing from the framework implications for those involved in breaking the cycle of poverty.     

The challenges of supporting necessity entrepreneurs: Understanding loan officer exit in microfinance

Necessity entrepreneurship can serve as a pathway out of poverty for low-income individuals, with microfinance often providing important financial support. Yet the relational lending strategies common among microfinance institutions may influence loan officer turnover and, in turn, compromise entrepreneurs' access to credit. While there is some reason to suspect that relational lending with poor entrepreneurs will increase retention, we propose that serving the poor may make loan officers more likely to quit: loan officers in commercial microfinance institutions are unlikely to have strong commitments to poverty alleviation and may be taxed by the challenging fieldwork associated with lending in poor areas. Qualitative and quantitative data from a microfinance bank in Latin America support our expectations, showing that exit becomes more likely when loan officers' work involves more poor clients and that the effect is strongest when such work demands intensive fieldwork in low-income areas. Supplementary analyses of trends across the global microfinance industry demonstrate that poor clients have a stronger impact on exit in for-profits than non-profits, suggesting that prosocial motives among non-profit employees may have a buffering effect. Overall, our study reveals how providing services to necessity entrepreneurs can have negative, unexpected consequences for frontline employees.     

Entrepreneurship as a solution to poverty

Individuals living in poverty remain a critical issue. This special issue focuses on how entrepreneurship can help to solve such poverty. Rather than viewing those in poverty as a market for goods, the solution lies in understanding how to help those living in poverty create their own businesses. Ultimately, entrepreneurship among those in poverty will create a long lasting solution to their poverty. Herein, we initially examine the extant knowledge about entrepreneurship. We then examine where future research on this important topic should move. Finally, we introduce the five articles that make up this special issue. These five articles came from the initial 71 submissions and enhance our knowledge about entrepreneurship as a pathway to reducing poverty.     

Discipline,abjection, and poverty alleviation through entrepreneurship: A constitutive perspective

Collective entrepreneurship has been found to alleviate extreme poverty by helping poor individuals integrate into their societies and overcome their multiple intertwined liabilities. We complement this line of inquiry by exploring the conditions under which group structures may instead reinforce economic and gendered poverty constraints.We conducted grounded-theoretical interviews with 104 women entrepreneurs operating in farming cooperatives and non-farm groups in war-torn South-West Cameroon. Analysing our data through a constitutive lens, we found that discipline, the extent to which rules determine and control individual behaviours, helps poor women overcome extreme economic constraints but prevents them from attaining prosperity and emancipation.     

连片特困地区农村妇女生计发展的要素测度及政策支持研究

农村妇女生计发展所面临的阻力对于精准扶贫政策的深入推进提出了更高层次的要求。基于全国12个连片特困地区2282名农村妇女的实地调查数据,描述了农村妇女生计发展的政策需求意愿,并运用二元Logistic模型分析了有关影响因素。研究发现,当前农村妇女所需要的政策支持按所占比例大小依次为:小额贷款项目、提供创业与就业信息、提供实用技术培训,而影响政策需求的因素主要有自然资本、人力资本、物质资本、金融资本和社会资本。对此,相关政策优化需要将性别意识纳入扶贫决策主流,并加强对农村妇女生计发展的技术培训和资金扶持,同时要给予农村女性老人的特殊帮扶。     

社会资本视域下的贫困农户减贫分析

对于贫困农户来说,社会资本可以通过为其提供机会、增强能力来减缓贫困。由于贫困农户的社会资本匮乏,维护社会资本能力较弱,且发展社会资本途径较少,通过推进农业产业化经营、提高贫困人口能力、培养农村民间组织、推动参与式扶贫,以及发挥NGO作用,可以有效提高贫困农户的社会资本,进而减轻其贫困。     

Engaging diasporas as international entrepreneurs in developing countries: In search of determinants

Diaspora has been increasingly recognized by practitioners and scholars as an important factor of development in developing economies. Through their remittances and expertise, diaspora members have become an important source of foreign direct investment and managerial capabilities. Although the literature is glutted with examples of the impact of diaspora in fostering international entrepreneurship and reducing poverty, a theoretical foundation and framework is needed to explain this impact. This study explores a theoretical foundation of the diaspora entrepreneurship. A framework identifying the determinants of the diaspora’s international new venture creation in the country of origin is developed. The study suggests that diaspora international entrepreneurship depends on the level of altruistic motivation, need of social recognition, entrepreneurial opportunities, friendliness and receptivity of the home country, as well as integration of and support to immigrants in the host countries. Propositions for diaspora entrepreneurship are developed.     

Trade Liberalisation and Poverty Reduction in Vietnam

This paper investigates the impacts of trade liberalisation on poverty reduction in Vietnam during the period of economic reform. Using a combined approach dealing with four transmitting channels from trade to poverty, the major findings are summarised as follows. First, Vietnam's trade liberalisation has fostered economic growth, which has helped to raise per capita GDP and reduce poverty. Second, trade liberalisation has directly benefited the poor through creating pro‐poor employment and raising wages. Third, another impact of trade liberalisation on poverty is income and substitution effects associated with reduced domestic prices of importables and increased domestic prices of exportables such as coffee and rice. Fourth, trade liberalisation has indirectly benefited the poor because it raises government revenue, which enhances the government's ability to subsidise the poor. Finally, although the poverty rate in Vietnam has been reduced impressively, there is an increasing disparity between urban and rural areas and, among the latter, concern does exist regarding ethnic minorities.     

The role of training in reducing poverty: the case of agricultural workers receiving microcredit in Bangladesh

The policy of providing microcredit and skill training to poor agricultural workers in developing countries is well‐established. In this study, an attempt has been made to assess the effectiveness of the training part of that policy. BRAC (formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), the largest non‐governmental organization in Bangladesh, is making efforts to alleviate poverty by providing microcredit and relevant training to landless and marginal borrowers, who have less than 1.5 acres of land, in order to enhance their standard of living. The study aims to assess the effects of BRAC's training programs on the recipients' total household expenditure. Primary data were collected from female borrowers who participated in the microcredit programs of BRAC and these data reflect the key role women play in agricultural work and the lack of research on their status. The study shows that the training provided to the borrowers failed to create any significant impact on their household expenditure because only a small percentage of borrowers received training and the duration of the training was limited (on average three days per person). Moreover, many of those who received training experienced only a modest income effect. The findings are important not just for the practical purpose of influencing policies for reducing poverty in Bangladesh but also for their contribution to the understanding of the effectiveness of training. The existing literature is concerned mainly with the effectiveness of training in the context of business and other organizations in developed countries. Research on the effectiveness of training in developing countries, particularly in alleviating poverty, is less evident. Moreover, the present research is also exceptional as it focuses only on female trainees.     

The role of training in reducing poverty: the case of the ultra‐poor in Bangladesh

Although microcredit is considered the main vehicle for increasing the income of the poor and alleviating poverty in Bangladesh, it is now well recognised that more than this is needed to reach the ultra poor in rural areas. Consequently, almost half of the Bangladesh population is in some way linked to non‐governmental organizations' development programmes, at the centre of which is poverty alleviation. The study reported here developed a comprehensive cross‐sectional intervention to examine whether the income of those who participated in the training programmes of non‐governmental organizations was related to that participation. The study was carried out in three leading organizations in three districts of Bangladesh using a quantitative associational research design. Three hundred responses were analysed using multiple regression analysis to elicit information from ultra poor clients who had received training. The results suggest that the post‐training income level of the trainees was negatively rather than positively related to the fact of their participation in training, the opposite of what human capital theory would lead us to expect.     

Fairtrade Facts and Fancies: What Kenyan Fairtrade Tea Tells us About Business’ Role as Development Agent

Various promising claims have been made that business can help alleviate poverty, and can do so in ways that add value to the bottom line. This article begins by highlighting that the evidence for such claims is not especially strong, particularly if business is thought of as a development agent, i.e. an organization that consciously and accountably contributes towards pro-poor outcomes. It goes on to ask whether, if we did know more about either the business case or the poverty alleviation case, would this give cause for greater optimism that business could make a significant contribution to development. By exploring the experiences of producers of Fairtrade tea in Kenya, we reveal the complex nature of what constitutes a beneficial outcome for the poor and marginalized, and the gap that can exist between ethical intentions and the experience of their intended beneficiaries. The lessons of these experiences are relevant for Fairtrade and any commercial initiative that seeks to achieve outcomes beneficial and recognizable to the poor, and raise questions about the integration of social and instrumental outcomes that a future generation of ethical entrepreneurship will need to address.     

我国脱贫减贫:现状、问题与战略转型研究

我国脱贫减贫呈现出典型的阶段性推进特征。通过持续的大规模扶贫开发,绝对贫困问题总体解决,区域性整体贫困明显缓解,贫困地区生活质量全面提高。但减贫也存在相对贫困人口规模较大,贫困人口识别标准单一,脱贫减贫主体发挥作用不够,扶贫减贫治理碎片化等问题。2020年我国脱贫攻坚任务如期完成后,绝对贫困解决但相对贫困仍将长期存在。发达国家减贫的贫困线设置、提升减贫内生动力、精准扶贫对象、分类设计保障性扶贫等有效做法,值得我们借鉴。适应新形势,2020年后我国减贫重心要转向常规治理相对贫困,减贫治理要转向统筹城乡贫困治理一体化,减贫政策要重在防止贫困人口返贫,减贫对象要更加关注特殊地区和特殊人群。     

Entrepreneurship Education in a Poverty Context: An Empowerment Perspective

Empowerment is an important but understudied phenomenonExperiential Learning in entrepreneurship education. We integrate literatures on empowerment theory and experiential learning to propose a conceptual model of empowerment‐based entrepreneurship education. The concept of entrepreneurial empowerment is introduced as a cognitive state characterized by meaning, competence, self‐determination, and impact toward entrepreneurial activities. The model proposes that empowerment has a mediating role in the relationship between experiential learning approaches in a poverty context and the acquisition of learning outcomes. The model is illustrated using an entrepreneurship and adversity program that supports local low‐income individuals in starting and growing their ventures.     

Sex business in the toy store: A narrative analysis of a teaching case

This article is a narrative analysis of an entrepreneurship case performed from a post-structuralist feminist perspective. Acknowledging the social construction of reality, gender is conceptualized as performed rather than as an essential quality attached to male and female bodies. The analysis finds that the case reproduces discriminatory gender relations. While using such cases in entrepreneurship training may teach pragmatic lessons, they also teach women that there is no place for them in business. Suggestions for improvement include cases with female protagonists, gender-inclusive language, stories that challenge received entrepreneurship ideas, and the introduction of narrative analysis to enrich students' learning opportunities.     

Women's entrepreneurship and well-being at the base of the pyramid

Women's entrepreneurship at the base of the pyramid can offer a way out of poverty for families, foster the development of communities, and provide a route to modernizing countries. Yet, we know little about what entrepreneurship means for the well-being of these entrepreneurs. This study investigates the well-being of marginalized women entrepreneurs engaged in an entrepreneurship training and venture creation program. Based on a qualitative case study method, our findings show that despite successful venture creation, the women differed in their experiences of well-being, with some flourishing and others languishing. Specifically, we found that the languishing women entrepreneurs lacked family support and prior work experience outside the home, which was associated with abstract goals and unrealistic expectations of venture creation outcomes. In contrast, flourishing women entrepreneurs, benefitting from prior work experience and family support, tended to set concrete goals for their entrepreneurial endeavors and had realistic expectations. Our findings provide new insights into some of the limitations of entrepreneurship programs for women at the base of the pyramid and emphasize the importance of well-being as a measure of successful venture creation.     

Toward a theory of transformative entrepreneuring: Poverty reduction and conflict resolution in Rwanda's entrepreneurial coffee sector

This study illustrates how entrepreneurship may catalyze prosperity as well as peace in entrenched poverty–conflict zones. We bring to life a conceptualization of transformative entrepreneuring by assessing interrelationships between poverty and conflict indicators from the perspective of rural dwellers in Rwanda's entrepreneurial coffee sector. Our findings suggest that individuals' perceptions of poverty alleviation and conflict reduction are sequentially linked, notably via increased quality of life. This enables us to advance theory on entrepreneuring by unpacking the mechanisms through which entrepreneurial processes may transform the lives of such ‘ordinary’ entrepreneurs in settings where economic and social value creation are desperately needed.     

Encouraging Entrepreneurship: Microfinance,Knowledge Support,and the Costs of Operating in Institutional Voids

This study focuses on the supplemented strategies of microfinance institutions (MFIs), in which the MFI offers nonfinancial services, such as entrepreneurship related knowledge, in addition to financial services to impoverished borrowers at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP). We examine two contextual factors–foreign direct investment (FDI) and loan defaults–to better understand the relationship between providing knowledge support to encourage entrepreneurship and costs of operating at the BoP for MFIs. In contexts where FDI is low and loan defaults are high, providing knowledge support to encourage entrepreneurship aggravates the MFI's costs of operating at the BoP. However, in contexts where FDI is high and loan defaults are low, providing knowledge support to encourage entrepreneurship among impoverished borrowers does not aggravate the MFI's costs of operating at the BoP. Hence, in emerging markets where governments welcome FDI and curb loan defaults, MFIs can viably support entrepreneurship among the poor. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Nascent Entrepreneurship and the Level of Economic Development

Based upon two strands of literature, this paper hypothesizes a U-shaped relationship between a country’s rate of entrepreneurial dynamics and its level of economic development. This would imply a different scope for entrepreneurship policy across subsequent stages of development. Regressing global entrepreneurship (GEM) 2002 data for nascent entrepreneurship in 36 countries on the level of economic development as measured either by per capita income or by an index for innovative capacity, we find support for a U-shaped relationship. The results suggest that a ‘natural rate’ of nascent entrepreneurship is to some extent governed by ‘laws’ related to the level of economic development. For the most advanced nations, improving incentive structures for business start-ups and promoting the commercial exploitation of scientific findings offer the most promising approach for public policy. Developing nations, however, may be better off pursuing the exploitation of scale economies, fostering foreign direct investment and promoting management education. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Trends in the market for entrepreneurship faculty, 1989–1998

The last decade has seen a dramatic rise in the number and status of entrepreneurship programs in schools of business and management. The popularity of entrepreneurship courses has increased dramatically among both graduate and undergraduate students. Alumni and external constituencies of schools of business have generally been supportive of the development of entrepreneurship programs, and in fact in many instances it has been the demands of these constituencies that have led to the creation or expansion of entrepreneurship programs within these schools. The growth in entrepreneurship programs has been fostered by an increase in the popularity of entrepreneurship, an increase in the status accorded entrepreneurs, as well as an increase in the recognition by the business press of the importance of entrepreneurship in the larger economy. Despite the increase in popularity within the field, there has also been considerable resistance from within the faculties of many institutions to the expansion of entrepreneurship programs. Faculty outside the field have been, and many remain, very skeptical about the validity of entrepreneurship as an academic field, the quality and rigor of entrepreneurship research and the need to hire academic faculty to teach and research in the field. The last decade has seen the confluence of these opposing forces.This disparity has created the question of whether the external forces supporting entrepreneurship are overcoming the inertia inherent in academic institutions and succeeding in institutionalizing the study of entrepreneurship within schools of business and management. This study hopes to shed some light on which of these forces is winning by addressing the question of whether the field of entrepreneurship is moving toward or has been institutionalized as part of the curriculum and research within schools of business and management. It also examines the institutionalization of the field by analyzing the change in the number and level of entrepreneurship positions, the quality of the recruiting institutions as well as the number, level and training of entrepreneurship candidates during the years 1989–1998. Data was obtained from the Academy of Management Placement Roster and The Chronicle of Higher Education for the years 1989–1998. Previous entrepreneurship education researchers have examined the number of endowed chairs and professorships, conferences, journals, programs and various centers for entrepreneurial education, however sparse research, if any, has been performed on the trends and characteristics of candidates and positions in the field of entrepreneurship.The results of this study are very encouraging. Both the demand for and the supply of entrepreneurship faculty have increased spectacularly during the last nine years. Between 1989/90 and 1997/98 the number of entrepreneurship positions increased 253% while the number of candidates increased by 94%. During this period the number of positions that list entrepreneurship as the primary field has increased ten-fold from 5 to 50 and the number of candidates that list entrepreneurship as their primary field has increased four-fold from 5 to 20. During the same period the number of secondary and tertiary positions have increased 116% and 78%, respectively, and the number of secondary and tertiary candidates have increased by 67% and 53%. The percentage of entrepreneurship positions listing entrepreneurship as the primary field has increased from 19% in 89/90 to 54% in 1997/98. Overall, the growth in the number of primary entrepreneurship positions is very encouraging.In the end, the results of this study are very encouraging. Both the demand and the supply of entrepreneurship faculty have increased spectacularly during the last nine years. The field has clearly made significant progress toward being institutionalized. However, it is still too soon to conclude that the commitment to entrepreneurship by schools of business and management is irreversible. One clear indication of the tenuous status is that, unlike strategy and international business, there has been no mandate from the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business that entrepreneurship be incorporated into the curriculum of all accredited schools. Entrepreneurship remains an elective subject in most schools and therefore depends on student interest. The field has made great strides during the 1990s, but a couple of hurdles remain.