Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets: Contextual Intelligence for the Study of Two Thirds of the World’s Population

In this paper, I review the concept of “institutional voids” that provides a way to understand the structure of emerging markets. These voids impede would-be buyers from getting together with would-be sellers, and hence compromise the functioning of markets. Entrepreneurs must respond to these voids. Their endeavors, however, are also the means through which the voids are progressively removed. I review my work on the contours of such entrepreneurship in many emerging markets, with the greatest research emphasis on China and India. I conclude with a focus on attempts to circumvent a particularly insidious class of institutional voids, those that prevent the marginalized two-thirds of the world’s population from participating in the economic mainstream. Cumulatively, my work calls for our profession to think more creatively and eclectically about our research and teaching in a way that displays greater contextual intelligence toward ubiquitous and socially costly voids.