Conference Programme

Entrepreneurship is widely recognized as a pathway to economic empowerment for individuals at the base of the pyramid in the Global South. Yet deeply embedded gender norms, poverty, and social stratification often limit access of such individuals to networks that could facilitate their entry into entrepreneurship. Existing research on entrepreneurial networking shows that aspiring entrepreneurs can strategically structure their networks. However, this work has been developed mainly in contexts where individuals have both entrepreneurial aspirations and the opportunity and discretion to initiate new ties. We extend this research to contexts where these conditions do not hold. Specifically, we examine how community-based organizations (CBOs) can reconfigure the networks of individuals at the base of the pyramid and thereby influence their likelihood of entering entrepreneurship. In the empirical context of self-help groups (SHGs) in rural India, we show that participation in CBOs is associated with expansion of participants’ networks to include more entrepreneurship-relevant contacts and with their subsequent entry into entrepreneurship. Importantly, disaggregating the composition of networks orchestrated by CBOs reveals that access to role-model contacts are more relevant than instrumental contacts who provide resources. Our findings have important implications for designing interventions that can foster entrepreneurship in the Global South.