Performance and environmental sustainability orientations in the informal economy of a least developed country

Emiel L. Eijdenberg*, Deo Sabokwigina, Enno Masurel

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which performance and environmental sustainability orientations (ESOs) are developed, as well as their association, in a typical impoverished community: the informal economy of an African least developed country (LDC). Design/methodology/approach: Based on a literature review and a pre-study on the spot, a questionnaire was developed before being completed by 140 informal food vendors – that is, “subsistence entrepreneurs” – in Tanzania. t-Tests, correlation analyses and regression analyses were carried out to approach the formulated hypotheses. Findings: The results showed that a significant distinction can be made between basic and advanced performance. In addition, the respondents showed significantly higher levels of awareness of ESO practices that are intangible and are not fully within their control than the so-called personal tangible ESO practices. However, performance was minimally affected by ESOs. Originality/value: While firm performance and environmental sustainability have been shortlisted on agendas outside academia (e.g. international development organisations) as a means to develop LDCs, the scientific community is lagging behind with regard to these two. This paper is one step forward in unravelling how performance and ESOs occur in LDCs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)129-149
Number of pages21
JournalInternational Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research
Volume25
Issue number1
Early online date3 Aug 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Jan 2019

Funding

This study is facilitated by a “Tailor-Made Training” (TMT) of the Netherlands Fellowship Programme. The TMT, entitled “Empowering gender-based food security entrepreneurship: an internet-driven course module”, involved two workshops at the University of Iringa (UoI) in Tanzania. The second workshop was provided by the authors of this paper. The participants from the UoI assisted considerably with the data collection. The authors are grateful to the reviewers of this journal and to those who have made helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper which was presented at the “RENT XXXI - Relevance in entrepreneurship research” Conference in Lund, Sweden (2017), and “EURAM 2018-Research in action-Accelerating knowledge creation in management” Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland (2018).

Keywords

  • Developing countries
  • Firm growth
  • Small firms
  • Sustainability

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