Accounting for the Transitions after Entrepreneurial Business Failure: An Emerging Market Perspective

This study builds on prior scholarly works on institutions and entrepreneurship by examining the

process of transitions and institutional obstacles that force serial entrepreneurs’ shift to operate in

the formal or informal sector after entrepreneurial business failures. Using insights from 32 serial

entrepreneurs in Ghana, a framework was developed and utilized to explicate how the pull and

push motivations for the transition into or persisting with formality or informality after business

failure unfolds over time. Our analysis sheds light on the processes and effects of the motivations

on the persistently high level of entrepreneurial activities in the informal sector for many emerging

economies.