Entrepreneurship as Institutional Change: Strategies of Bridging Institutional Contradictions

Abstract

This paper responds to calls to make more explicit linkages between institutional theory and entrepreneurship research through studies on how entrepreneurs navigate and work with institutions. The research examines the micro‐strategies and activities through which small‐scale entrepreneurs maneuver between and exploit the multiple, potentially contradictory institutional logics of the different spheres in which they operate. While much research has elucidated how institutional entrepreneurs effect change, this study illustrates how effective entrepreneurs managing and exploiting institutional contradictions engage simultaneously in practices of maintaining and changing institutions to establish a balance between the poles on which their ventures depend. We illustrate this by two cases of small‐scale entrepreneurship bridging institutional contradictions from an ethnographic study conducted under the ongoing efforts to implement liberal democracy in Malawi. This transition comprises attempts to build stronger pillars for democratic governance such as the development of a market economy.