The Impact of Institutional Environment on Entrepreneurship Post-COVID 19

Abstract

The COVID 19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown left in its wake a world -wide socio-economic disaster. Small medium and micro-enterprises (SMME) on the African continent were pushed into financial distress and many facing financial ruin and bankruptcy. The partial relaxation of the hard lockdown was aimed at achieving a balancing act between savings people’s lives and averting a socio-economic disaster. Entrepreneurship is key and hold the answer to kick start the economy ensuring economic growth, prosperity, employment creation and ultimately poverty reduction (Klapper, Laeven and Rajan. 2006). It is a known fact that not all entrepreneurs are equally successful in their endeavors. This paper is a review and synthesis of the literature in an attempt to understand in what way, if any, the institutional environment impact on entrepreneurship. A desktop study was used to do a literature review from six journals covering the period 2013-2018. The findings indicated that a number of factors such as liability of newness impact on entrepreneurship. The findings are important to understand the impact of institutional environment on entrepreneurial survival and how to respond during a crisis such as COVID 19. Keywords: Institutional Environment , Institutional theory, Emerging economies, Institutional and entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur, SMME DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-33-05 Publication date: November 30 th 2020