Resilience of Entrepreneurs in Conflict Zones: Evidence from Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine
type: CreativeWork
description: In places where there is violent conflict and substantial institutional deficiencies, entrepreneurial activity increases as self-employment becomes a necessary survival and coping mechanism and strategy. Women within context affected by long-term conflict are also more likely to engage in entrepreneurship whilst experiencing additional challenges to those experienced by women entrepreneurs in non-conflict affected developing economies. With the temporary or permanent loss of household income, women contribute an increased share of income-generating activities and may often be the main or sole providers for their families. Therefore, researching entrepreneurship in contexts of conflict is important for advancing our knowledge of entrepreneurship practises, albeit this remains very limited research. The limited evidence available to date suggests that entrepreneurs are resilient in confronting political and economic instability, and this is dependent upon factors both within and outside their control. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to entrepreneurship and resilience literature from a contextual and institutional perspective. The study explores and analyses how entrepreneurs build and develop resilience within institutional constraints to maintain or thrive their businesses in the context of conflict zones. This qualitative study explores the entrepreneurial experiences of 30 entrepreneurs in total, 16 women and 14 men, in the three conflict-affected zones of Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. Those countries were chosen due to their cultural similarities and easier access to personal networks. Despite the regulative, normative and cognitive institutional constraints that entrepreneurs face, they are willing to start businesses and work persistently in response to institutional voids in order to maintain their businesses. The conflict situation in addition to religious values have shaped the entrepreneurial motivations, challenges and resilience of entrepreneur…
abstract: In places where there is violent conflict and substantial institutional deficiencies, entrepreneurial activity increases as self-employment becomes a necessary survival and coping mechanism and strategy. Women within context affected by long-term conflict are also more likely to engage in entrepreneurship whilst experiencing additional challenges to those experienced by women entrepreneurs in non-conflict affected developing economies. With the temporary or permanent loss of household income, women contribute an increased share of income-generating activities and may often be the main or sole providers for their families. Therefore, researching entrepreneurship in contexts of conflict is important for advancing our knowledge of entrepreneurship practises, albeit this remains very limited research. The limited evidence available to date suggests that entrepreneurs are resilient in confronting political and economic instability, and this is dependent upon factors both within and outside their control. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to entrepreneurship and resilience literature from a contextual and institutional perspective. The study explores and analyses how entrepreneurs build and develop resilience within institutional constraints to maintain or thrive their businesses in the context of conflict zones. This qualitative study explores the entrepreneurial experiences of 30 entrepreneurs in total, 16 women and 14 men, in the three conflict-affected zones of Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. Those countries were chosen due to their cultural similarities and easier access to personal networks. Despite the regulative, normative and cognitive institutional constraints that entrepreneurs face, they are willing to start businesses and work persistently in response to institutional voids in order to maintain their businesses. The conflict situation in addition to religious values have shaped the entrepreneurial motivations, challenges and resilience of entrepreneur…
author: Althalathini, Doaa
language: eng
keywords: Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Resilience, Entrepreneurship, Conflict zones, Institutional theory
date published: 2020-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:49:55Z
provider: University of Plymouth
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Plymouth