Abstract:
Informal economies account for up to 70 per cent of GDP in developing
countries, but few studies have explored informal entrepreneurship.
To fill this gap, an exploratory study involving 855 university students in
an emerging economy applies the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to
study the cognitive process of informal entrepreneurship. The effect of
past experience (PE) and necessity entrepreneurship on the intention to
start a business is also explored. Our findings provide evidence that the
decision to start a business in the informal economy reinforces the effect
of subjective norms on entrepreneurial intentions (EIs). Implications for
education programmes and for theory are discussed.
