Date of Award

5-2021

Document Type

Campus Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Business Administration

First Advisor

Nardia Haigh

Second Advisor

Benyamin Lichtenstein

Third Advisor

Sophie Bacq

Abstract

This dissertation builds upon the growing role of social entrepreneurship in the context of international development and examines how an environment supportive of social ventures is created at local and transnational levels. The increasing understanding of social entrepreneurs as actors of international development and as vehicles to achieve the goals of community building, economic growth, and poverty reduction in emerging economies manifests itself through three interrelated processes. First, there is a growing number of ventures that originate in developed economies and create so-called inclusive innovations seeking to address social and environmental challenges in emerging economies. Second, due to the lack of resources and entrepreneurship support infrastructures in emerging economies, especially in the context of poverty, social ventures that originate in these challenging contexts increasingly seek resources outside of their location of origin and engage with development-focused entrepreneurship support organizations that operate at the regional and international levels. Third, and related, more and more international development organizations establish entrepreneurship support initiatives, such as new venture accelerators, venture capital funds, and entrepreneurial ecosystem building programs, to provide social ventures that operate in emerging economies with essential resources and to create a supportive environment for these ventures. This dissertation comprises three essays that draw on multiple theoretical lenses, including institutional theory, international business literature, and project studies, to investigate these trends.

Comments

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