Entrepreneurship and poverty in developed countries: a systematic review, synthesis, and future research directions

Despite the important role of entrepreneurship in alleviating poverty in developing countries, scholars have devoted less attention to exploring entrepreneurship and poverty in developed countries. Therefore, our understanding of entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation remains limited even though poverty in developed countries was increasing long before the COVID-19 pandemic. This systematic literature review aims to provide a foundational understanding of this phenomenon by evaluating research papers on entrepreneurship and poverty in developed countries. The authors identify 51 studies in developed countries from 1990 to 2020 that link poverty to entrepreneurship. These studies are classified based on four dimensions: entrepreneurial antecedents, activities, contexts and outcomes. This paper develops new insights and highlights several promising future research opportunities. It also proposes theoretical approaches to advance the entrepreneurship and poverty literature by utilising and extending theories such as opportunity theory and bricolage theory.