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Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations

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Selected Works

Informal economy

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Enabling Enterprise: Tackling The Barriers To Formalisation, Colin C. Williams Dec 2011

Enabling Enterprise: Tackling The Barriers To Formalisation, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.


Jde 2012 Ghana Motives.Pdf, Colin C. Williams Dec 2011

Jde 2012 Ghana Motives.Pdf, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

In recent years, there has been growing recognition in the entrepreneurship literature that many
entrepreneurs operate in the informal economy and that not all these informal entrepreneurs are doing
so out of economic necessity and because of a lack of choice. Instead, it has been asserted that some of
these informal entrepreneurs choose to exit the formal economy and trade on an off-the-books basis
more as a matter of choice. However, until now most research displaying this has been conducted in
advanced western and post-socialist economies. Little has been written on whether this is also the case
in third (majority) …


From Market Hegemony To Diverse Economies: Evaluating The Plurality Of Labour Practices In Ukraine, Colin C. Williams Dec 2011

From Market Hegemony To Diverse Economies: Evaluating The Plurality Of Labour Practices In Ukraine, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

Drawing inspiration from a burgeoning corpus of scholars who have begun to question the narrative of impending market hegemony, this paper seeks to further advance this emergent ‘diverse economies’ literature by constructing a conceptual framework for representing the multiple labour practices in economies. Transcending the simplistic market/non-market dichotomy, this conceptualises multiple kinds of labour existing along a spectrum from market-oriented to non-market oriented practices, which is cross-cut by another spectrum ranging from wholly monetised to wholly non-monetised practices. The resultant portrayal of a plurality of labour practices that seamlessly merge into each other is then applied to understanding the types …


Entrepreneurship In The Informal Economy: Commercial Or Social Entrepreneurs?, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin Dec 2011

Entrepreneurship In The Informal Economy: Commercial Or Social Entrepreneurs?, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin

Colin C Williams

Recent research has revealed that a large proportion of entrepreneurs startup
their ventures operating on a wholly or partially off-the-books basis. Until now, it
has been commonly assumed that those who operate in the informal economy are
exclusively commercial entrepreneurs. They are assumed to be rational economic
actors who weigh up the benefits of operating off-the-books against the costs of
being caught and decide to operate in this manner. The aim of this paper is to
evaluate critically this a priori assumption. Reporting evidence from a 2005/6 survey
involving face-to-face interviews with 102 informal entrepreneurs in Moscow in
Russia, the …


Re-Thinking Informal Entrepreneurship: Commercial Or Social Entrepreneurs?, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin Dec 2011

Re-Thinking Informal Entrepreneurship: Commercial Or Social Entrepreneurs?, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin

Colin C Williams

This paper evaluates critically the assumption that entrepreneurs
who start-up their business ventures operating wholly or partially
off-the-books are engaged in commercial entrepreneurship. Reporting evidence
from a 2005–2006 survey involving face-to-face interviews with
298 informal entrepreneurs in Ukraine, the finding is that they are not all
commercially-driven. Instead, these informal entrepreneurs range from purely
rational economic actors who pursue for-profit logics through to purely social
entrepreneurs who pursue solely social logics, with the majority somewhere
in the middle of this spectrum combining both for-profit and social rationales.
The result is a call for a more nuanced understanding of the heterogeneous …


Evaluating The Persistence Of Selfprovisioning In Central And Eastern Europe: Some Evidence From Post-Soviet Ukraine, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin Dec 2011

Evaluating The Persistence Of Selfprovisioning In Central And Eastern Europe: Some Evidence From Post-Soviet Ukraine, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin

Colin C Williams

Recently, it has become increasingly recognized that the reach of the market
economy is shallower than previously assumed and that other livelihood
practices persist, such as self-provisioning. However, neither the prevalence of
nor the rationales underpinning engagement in these non-market work
practices have been widely evaluated. To start to bridge this gap, this article
evaluates the extent of self-provisioning in post-Soviet Ukraine and the reasons
for engaging in such subsistence production. Until now, participants in selfprovisioning
have been portrayed either as rational economic actors, dupes,
seekers of self-identity, or simply doing so out of necessity or choice. Analyzing
face-to-face interviews …


Re-Theorizing The Informal Economy In Western Nations: Some Lessons From Rural England, Colin C. Williams Jan 2010

Re-Theorizing The Informal Economy In Western Nations: Some Lessons From Rural England, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.


Small Businesses In The Informal Economy: The Evidence Base, Colin C. Williams Dec 2003

Small Businesses In The Informal Economy: The Evidence Base, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.