Performance and environmental sustainability orientations in the informal economy of a least developed country
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research
ISSN: 1355-2554
Article publication date: 3 August 2018
Issue publication date: 4 January 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which performance and environmental sustainability orientations (ESOs) are developed, as well as their association, in a typical impoverished community: the informal economy of an African least developed country (LDC).
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a literature review and a pre-study on the spot, a questionnaire was developed before being completed by 140 informal food vendors – that is, “subsistence entrepreneurs” – in Tanzania. t-Tests, correlation analyses and regression analyses were carried out to approach the formulated hypotheses.
Findings
The results showed that a significant distinction can be made between basic and advanced performance. In addition, the respondents showed significantly higher levels of awareness of ESO practices that are intangible and are not fully within their control than the so-called personal tangible ESO practices. However, performance was minimally affected by ESOs.
Originality/value
While firm performance and environmental sustainability have been shortlisted on agendas outside academia (e.g. international development organisations) as a means to develop LDCs, the scientific community is lagging behind with regard to these two. This paper is one step forward in unravelling how performance and ESOs occur in LDCs.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study is facilitated by a “Tailor-Made Training” (TMT) of the Netherlands Fellowship Programme. The TMT, entitled “Empowering gender-based food security entrepreneurship: an internet-driven course module”, involved two workshops at the University of Iringa (UoI) in Tanzania. The second workshop was provided by the authors of this paper. The participants from the UoI assisted considerably with the data collection. The authors are grateful to the reviewers of this journal and to those who have made helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper which was presented at the “RENT XXXI - Relevance in entrepreneurship research” Conference in Lund, Sweden (2017), and “EURAM 2018-Research in action-Accelerating knowledge creation in management” Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland (2018).
Citation
Eijdenberg, E.L., Sabokwigina, D. and Masurel, E. (2019), "Performance and environmental sustainability orientations in the informal economy of a least developed country", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 129-149. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-01-2018-0040
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited