Digital technologies, social entrepreneurship and resilience during crisis in developing countries: evidence from Nigeria
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research
ISSN: 1355-2554
Article publication date: 26 June 2023
Issue publication date: 11 March 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Social entrepreneurship (SE) is a complex phenomenon designed to resolve numerous societal challenges while remaining economically viable. However, how social entrepreneurs in developing countries have deployed digital technologies to address communal challenges during the Covid-19 crisis is largely undocumented. This research examines social entrepreneurs' adoption of digital technologies, the multi-level organisational conditions, and associated innovative outcomes of engaging digital technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the organisational resilience theoretical framework, this research employs a qualitative methodology, comprising 38 semi-structured interviews with Nigerian SE firms, to investigate social entrepreneurs' engagement with digital technologies.
Findings
The study’s findings reveal 19 pathways through which digital technologies enabled organisational resilience outcomes by Nigerian SE firms during the Covid-19 pandemic. This allows the authors to show, via a 3 × 3 matrix, how social entrepreneurs deploy digital technologies to build proximate, dynamic, and continuous resilience in a weak institutional context.
Originality/value
The study’s findings enables the authors to advance the SE – digital technologies – resilience scholarship in a developing economy.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
One of the authors would like to thank the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), UKRI [ES/W005611/1] for support.
Citation
Nakpodia, F., Ashiru, F., You, J.J. and Oni, O. (2024), "Digital technologies, social entrepreneurship and resilience during crisis in developing countries: evidence from Nigeria", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 30 No. 2/3, pp. 342-368. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-01-2023-0012
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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