Unleashing the Entrepreneurial Potential in the Global South: Dynamics of Transformation and Development
摘要
The disparities between the Global North and Global South form a critical axis for examining the structural and conjunctural dynamics that either enable or constrain economic and social development. Generally, countries in the Global North are distinguished by institutional stability, technological sophistication, and extensive access to finance—conditions that nurture opportunity-driven entrepreneurship, grounded in innovation and value creation. In contrast, the Global South continues to confront enduring challenges such as informality, poverty, institutional fragility, and precarious labor markets. These constraints frequently give rise to necessity-based, rather than opportunity-driven, entrepreneurial activity. Yet, despite such adverse conditions, entrepreneurs across the Global South exhibit remarkable capacity for innovation and resilience, devising creative and sustainable solutions within contexts of pronounced vulnerability. This chapter aims to examine the social and economic dynamics of entrepreneurship in the Global South through a bibliometric lens to elucidate the structural inequalities that distinguish it from the Global North. To achieve this, 524 documents were retrieved from the Scopus database and analyzed using Biblioshiny software. The findings indicate a steadily growing academic interest in the subject since 1987; however, a pronounced geographical bias persists, as reflected in the limited representation of Latin American scholarship. Moreover, the literature continues to privilege an individualistic conception of the entrepreneur, largely detached from the systemic, institutional, and social contexts that shape entrepreneurial behavior and outcomes. This chapter advances the concept of reflexivity as a critical analytical lens for understanding entrepreneurship in contexts of inequality, as it enables deeper questioning of the beliefs, values, and institutional structures that constrain entrepreneurial agency. Accordingly, it is essential to develop theoretical and empirical frameworks that acknowledge and represent the cultural, economic, and social diversity inherent in the Global South. Ultimately, this chapter argues that the entrepreneur should be understood as a systemic and transformative agent capable of channeling entrepreneurial activity toward equity, sustainability, and institutional strengthening.