Strategic Entrepreneurial Agency in Emerging Markets

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of strategic entrepreneurial agency (SEA) to describe the impromptu and improvised nature of strategy making by managers of ventures in emerging markets. The concept is at the intersection of strategy, international entrepreneurship (IE) and entrepreneurship literatures. Rather than customary firm-level approaches that dominate the literature, the concept of SEA argues that learning and individual agency are critical for addressing the institutional upheaval of emerging markets. The psychology of the entrepreneur and IE from the individual as opposed to firm perspective are central in the institutional contexts of emerging markets. The article proposes research propositions informed by psychology of the entrepreneur and strategy-as-practice.