Evaluating competing theories of informal entrepreneurship: some lessons from Ukraine

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate critically the competing theories of informal entrepreneurship that variously represent such endeavour as a residue from a previous mode of accumulation (modernisation theory), a direct by-product of contemporary capitalism and survival strategy for those marginalised from the circuits of the modern economy (structuralism), an endeavour voluntarily pursued due to over-regulation in the formal economy (neo-liberalism) or a practice chosen for social, redistributive, political or identity reasons (post-structuralism). Design/methodology/approach - To evaluate these competing theories, a 2005/2006 survey involving face-to-face interviews with 298 informal entrepreneurs in Ukraine is analysed. Findings - Contrary to previous studies which assert that one single theorisation is universally applicable, this study finds that each theory is valid for different types of informal entrepreneurship, and therefore proposes a typology of informal entrepreneurship that joins together the contrasting theorisations in order to achieve a more accurate and finer-grained explanation of the complex and heterogeneous configuration of informal entrepreneurship in contemporary Ukraine. Research limitations/implications - This paper reveals the need to move beyond treating the competing explanations as mutually exclusive by outlining a typology that combines the contrasting theorisations in order to more fully understand the heterogeneity of informal entrepreneurship. Practical implications - By unravelling the heterogeneity of informal entrepreneurship, a more nuanced policy approach is shown to be required which does not seek to simply either eradicate such endeavour, pursue a laissez-faire approach or harness such entrepreneurship but instead pursues all these approaches to varying extents in relation to different kinds of informal entrepreneur. Originality/value - This is one of the first papers to identify and empirically evaluate the competing theories of informal entrepreneurship.