Exploring the dynamic relationship between Context and (In)formal entrepreneurship: the mundane and lively entrepreneurial activities of rural youths in Ghana

Extant literature has shown that millions of Africans, as part of their everyday work and enterprise practices, participate in informality. Various arguments have been put forward by scholars to explain the persistence of this enterprise phenomenon among such a population. A consensus is that informality is heterogeneous with both static and dynamic elements. The intense focus on informality over the last seven decades in academic and policy circles has led to positive and negative characterisations of this phenomenon. However, in recent years there has been growing acknowledgement that individuals who participate in informality do so at varying degrees within a formality-informality continuum. In line with the new streams of studies which view the phenomenon as occurring within a continuum, this study explored the dynamic relationship between (in)formality as a venture practice and the multi-faceted context of which rural youth entrepreneurs (RYEs) are embedded and navigates. With the study focused on Ghana, it employs both quantitative and qualitative tools to reveal the trigger paths, process enablers and constrainers that influence the venture activities of RYEs within such a continuum.

It calls into question the implicit assumptions in capitalist and non-capitalist centric perspectives (e.g., dualism, structuralism, neo-liberalism and post-structuralism) that explores the diversity of this phenomenon only at the base of the continuum, by unpacking how structures, conditions and actors situated in the domains of context affect such a venture practice. It reveals the strategic and tactical actions carried out by the RYEs studied to exploit economic and non-economic opportunities and resources associated with both formality and informality, and highlight the dynamic ways they employ mix of formality and informality to deal with complex constraints, situations and risks embedded within and across the domains, to emancipate themselves and their businesses. It provides various conceptual and methodological contributions as well as set practical implications for stakeholders affected by the phenomenon.