INFORMAL FINANCE IN SETTINGS OF POVERTY: ESTABLISHING AN AGENDA FOR FUTURE ENTREPRENEURSHIP RESEARCH

Entrepreneurship is viewed as a major tool in the effort to address poverty in emerging economies. Yet financing for such entrepreneurial ventures remains a major challenge. To date, most research on financing of entrepreneurial ventures among those in poverty in emerging economies has focused on formal financial tools such as microfinancing. However, a far larger financing tool employed in practice is informal financing. Such financing takes the shape of loans by family/friends/neighbors, private money lenders, or rotating savings groups. Very little is known about how these finance tools affect entrepreneurship. This article reviews the existing literature on informal finance in emerging economies and then develops a rich research agenda for scholars on informal finance in emerging economies and its role in entrepreneurship.