Tech hub entrepreneurial training to low-income communities: Evidence from Brazil

Abstract

Global development agencies have funded entrepreneurial projects to alleviate poverty in developing countries. This study discusses an international-sponsored training project delivered by a tech hub to stimulate creative economy entrepreneurship in low-income communities in Brazil. Studies focusing on providing entrepreneurial resources to create value for poor communities have diverging results. There is no clear understanding of resource use and transformation processes to generate entrepreneurial value for poor people. We have used the resourcing perspective from the social practice theory to analyze how project actions transform potential resources into resources used by community participants. Analyzing project entrepreneurship steps through resource-schema-action cycles and resourcing mechanisms allows an understanding of how participants use and transform resources to create valuable outcomes. Also, the technology-oriented hub approach constrains resourcing cycles and community enterprise options over time. As a result, a project developed in hub spaces could risk favoring community groups with better technological backgrounds and more visibility in that environment, limiting the breadth of its social change. Understanding the resourcing elements would help managers get more value from entrepreneurial resources when developing low-income enterprises. An empirical framework and related propositions summarize the paper's contributions.