State fragility as a multi-dimensional construct for international entrepreneurship research and practice

While the international entrepreneurship literature has begun to expand its scope to include the world’s poorest and least-developed countries, it has not yet reached a consensus about how to conceptualize and measure the relevant cross-national differences that shape the wide range of entrepreneurial activities across the developing world. To address this gap, we explore the potential contribution of the multi-dimensional construct of “state fragility,” as developed in related fields, as an orienting framework for developing-country entrepreneurship research. Instead of viewing all developing country states as universally weak, the state fragility construct provides a conceptual framework to identify which types of capabilities are weak, to which degree, and in what configuration, thus advancing efforts to systematically compare and contrast the wide diversity of entrepreneurial processes and outcomes found across the developing world.