Female informal entrepreneurship: conceptualizing a contextualized and multi-level process

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to devote special attention to contextualizing and gendering the subject of informal entrepreneurship by focusing on female informal entrepreneurs as a complex phenomenon. Moreover, it aims to understand the processual and multi-level nature of female informal entrepreneuring, encompassing the individual, the firm, and the network. The study is a conceptual contribution, following the methodological guidelines by Jaakola (2020). The study discusses in a holistic approach the importance of various dimensions of context (institutional, economic, and technological) from the female informal entrepreneurship perspective. The findings are systematized within a conceptual model that highlights the processual and multi-level nature of the phenomenon in its relationships with multiple contexts. The limitations of the study lie in its conceptual nature. Literature is not analyzed following a systematic approach but along the guidelines for conceptual papers, which implies potential neglect of some studies. The conceptual model of female informal entrepreneuring aims to suggest future research directions and develop policies. The study raises key issues for policymakers when dealing with female informal entrepreneurship. The role of context opens new avenues for policy-making. Gendering the context perspective and understanding the possible evolutionary pathways of female informal entrepreneurs permits to develop policies tailored to the specificity of the phenomenon. The study integrates and systematizes extant work on female informal entrepreneurship, by examining the contextual dimensions, including technologies available, and their dynamics over time and linking them to entrepreneuring as a multi-level process, which can evolve through tensions and paradoxes in non-linear ways from informal to formal and vice-versa or persist in the informal condition.