Formal-Informal Paradox of Indigenous Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh

Recent research in the emerging field of ‘Indigenous Entrepreneurship’ is revealing that there are various conditions and values present when it comes to Indigenous businesses and enterprises, that fundamentally challenges the common assumptions about entrepreneurship. This study aims to address the challenges that ethnic minorities in Bangladesh, otherwise known as Indigenous people (IP), face in their entrepreneurial ventures while remaining in the informal sector, and recommend policy initiatives to counteract those challenges. We hypothesize that the Indigenous economy’s entrepreneurial landscape mainly comprises informal entrepreneurship. Which inevitably creates barriers to accessing financial institutions, incentives and services provided by the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) and other formal institutions, necessary for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) to scale up and maximize market development. For this study, we used 67 case studies of IP-led businesses and startups in Bangladesh, in conjunction with the Future of Business Survey Data from Facebook. We use Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (Fs/QCA), a novel analytical method to identify complex interacting causal factors from a large body of case studies. We hope to provide a sound basis for policy interventions based on practical and perceived needs of IPs, which are required to make entrepreneurship in Bangladesh more inclusive and ensure that IPs have a level playing field in the formal economy of Bangladesh.