An Economic Sociology of Entry Barriers in Africa

Case study of Kenyan Business Entry and the Inner City Market

A Dissertation Proposal by

Mirriam Siwa

Doctoral Candidate

??????? University,

Submitted to:

June 10, 2017

 Table of Contents
Abstract..................................................................................................................................
Prologue.................................................................................................................................

Chapter 1................................................................................................................................
The Past, Present, and Future.........................................................................................
The Past.....................................................................................................................
The Present & Future.................................................................................................
Inner City Business Research: An Overview.................................................................
The Inner City............................................................................................................
A Theory of Business Entry..........................................................................................
Other New Markets.................................................................................................

Chapter 2................................................................................................................................
Theoretical Background.................................................................................................
Entry Barriers.............................................................................................................
Embeddedness and Entry Barriers.............................................................................
Types of Entry Barriers..............................................................................................
Entry Barriers and the Entry Decision..........................................................................
Entry Strategies and Performance.................................................................................
Experience and Partnership........................................................................................
Overcoming Institutional Entry Barriers...................................................................
Overcoming Social Entry Barriers.............................................................................
Overcoming Economic Entry Barriers.......................................................................

2
 Contribution to Theory and Practice A b s t r a c t

Entrepreneurship theorists concern themselves with important questions about the

evaluation of business opportunities. How is an opportunity evaluated? Why do some
entrepreneurs see business opportunities where others do not?

In this dissertation, I propose a theory of social and institutional entry barriers to explain
these differences for inner city markets. To summarize, I argue that inner city markets pose a
challenge for business managers and entrepreneurs because many do not understand how to
address significant social and institutional factors. These factors influence the structure of
business opportunities in inner cities. It is the structures around the business opportunity that
make the inner city business opportunities different from other business opportunities.
Business opportunities in the inner city markets are more influenced by these social and
institutional forces than the traditional market and therefore different business strategies are
necessary to address them.

Secondly, I theorize about the relationship between the entry strategy and the performance of
the firm. Business strategy in inner city markets will follow patterns consistent with
overcoming social and institutional entry barriers. In other words, those entrepreneurs whose
background and experience give them superior knowledge and capabilities within an inner city
market will build more successful firms than those without this knowledge and capabilities.
The entrepreneurs that build firms more adept at overcoming social and institutional barriers to
the inner city market will be more successful than those without.

The contribution of this dissertation to entrepreneurship theory is its use of the lens of economic
sociology to define how the existence of social and institutional entry barriers structures
the business opportunities of inner cities. These types of entry barriers influence the decision
to enter a new market and the entry strategy chosen for inner city markets.

Entry barriers to new markets have been classically defined in terms of cost advantages,
product differentiation, capital requirements, switching cots, and access to distribution
channels. These types of barriers, however, do not explain the breadth of challenges and
opportunities afforded to firms seeking to enter new markets.

I make the case in this dissertation that entry barriers fall into three categories.
Traditional entry barriers described Bain (1956) and Porter (1980) conform to the classic
economic barriers described above. These economic barriers, originally intended to explain
aspects of industry structure, have been extended to explain competition in market structure.
To this economic entry barrier, I add two dimensions: social and institutional entry barriers.
Social entry barriers such as networks of resources and access to appropriate workforce are
related to the social structure of the market. Institutional entry barriers such as political
stability, order, norms, and values, are related to the institutional structure of the market.
This dissertation develops propositions concerning the nature of business opportunity and
business entry in inner city markets. I ask three important questions. First, what factors
influence the decision to enter for firms interested in entering inner city markets? Second, for
those that enter, what is the relationship between these entry barriers and the entrance strategies
they use to enter? Third, how do these entrance
Strategies relate to firm performance? I employ three different research methodologies to
answer these questions: interviews, vignettes, and survival analysis of empowerment zone
data