Becoming From Within: Understanding the Emergence and Embeddedness of Inclusive Agribusiness Entrepreneurs

Abstract

The entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) literature often overlooks rural contexts and developing economies where productive entrepreneurship is assumed to be limited in scope. To address this oversight, we explore the phenomenon of inclusive agribusiness (IAB) entrepreneurs who adopt sustainable agricultural practices to drive poverty alleviation in low-income rural areas. Based on the comparative case method and utilizing qualitative case studies of two IAB entrepreneurs in Nigeria who partnered with low-income smallholder farmers, we identify the mechanisms that lead to the emergence and embeddedness of IAB entrepreneurship. Our findings illustrate the pre-existing conditions, entrepreneurial actions, and emergent outcomes of IAB entrepreneurship. We find that IAB entrepreneurship involves the complex interplay between the micro-dynamics of entrepreneurs and the macro-level structures of their local ecosystems. Our paper contributes to understanding how entrepreneurship emerges, resources are mobilized, and value is co-created in impoverished rural contexts through the agentic dynamics of productive entrepreneurs and their local stakeholders.