Papers > By author > Warnecke Tonia

In the aftermath of the Great Recession, and growing uncertainty in the political and socioeconomic landscape of many countries, the idea of entrepreneurship as a strategy for personal financial security is experiencing increased popularity. This paper will discuss the controversial relationship between entrepreneurship, economic growth and human development in the developing world, focusing on necessity vs. opportunity entrepreneurship and informal vs. formal sector entrepreneurship. Examination of varied institutional scholarship on entrepreneurship (e.g. Schloss 1968; McDaniel 2005; Nega and Schneider 2014; Dolfsma and de Lanoy 2016; Champeyrache 2018) yields insight regarding the conditions which impact entrepreneurship's ability to produce meaningful change for individuals, households, communities, and the broader economy. This paper also considers whether these conditions have changed in recent decades, and discusses the way that entrepreneurship fits into the institutional infrastructure for social welfare provision, noting the challenges of promoting entrepreneurship-based solutions in the absence of a strong social safety net. Examples from China and India will be used for context.