Page - 274 - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

Challenges andOpportunities for Digital Entrepreneurship inDevelopingCountries Georges Samara and Jessica Terzian Abstract This chapter explores the obstacles and opportunities that digital entrepreneurs encounter when they operate in developing countries. Drawing on the varieties of institutional systems framework and on three interviews (two digital entrepreneurs and one consultant), this chapter chalks out the idiosyncratic challenges and opportunities for digital entrepreneurs operating in a developing context.Ourfindings indicate that digital entrepreneurs face aweak institutional infrastructureandanenvironmentcharacterizedbycorruption thatobstructs their operations. These weak infrastructures result in the inaccessibility to necessary start-up funds, the lack of policies and regulations that protect and support e-commerce, a weak digital infrastructure, and to a deficiency in digitally competent andexperienced labor capital.At the same time, ourfindings indicate some opportunities stemming from the unique institutional setting in which digital entrepreneurs operate. The opportunities translate into the use of family wealthasa sourceof start-upfinancial capital, theuseofpersonal connectionsas a source of social and human capital, and the rising education on digital entrepreneurship and its benefits. We conclude with some suggestions to improve the current institutional infrastructure for digital entrepreneurs in developing countries. G. Samara (&) University of Sharjah, College of Business Administration, Sharjah, UAE e-mail: gs50@aub.edu.lb G. Samara J. Terzian AmericanUniversity of Beirut, Olayan School of Business, Beirut, Lebanon ©TheAuthor(s) 2021 M.Soltanifar et al. (eds.),DigitalEntrepreneurship, FutureofBusiness andFinance, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53914-6_14 283