Entrepreneurial Fishmongers in Kenya

Abstract

In many emerging economies, the fishing industry is under pressure due to climatological changes as well as socio-economic developments. These changes and developments affect the entrepreneurial fishmongers who want to thrive their enterprises and contribute to their communities. In line with previous research on institutional environments, we explore the perceived institutional impediments that fishmongers face. In addition, we scope the perceived external facilitators and entrepreneurial reactions to fight these institutional impediments. Based on one focus group of experts and 21 individual interviews with fishmongers around Lake Victoria (Kenya), this chapter provides details of financial impediments, market impediments, rules and regulation impediments and spatial impediments. Conversely, as a way to fight these impediments, the fishmongers experience government support and economies of scale as external facilitators, and they react in an entrepreneurial and indigenous way by undertaking collaborations and alliances, engaging in cash flow management, and developing enterprising skills. The findings contribute to entrepreneurship and sustainable development research by exhibiting how external events are experienced by entrepreneurial fishmongers in poverty-stricken areas and how these individuals react to them, thereby aiming for the betterment of their lives and their indigenous community.