Systematic review: entrepreneurship in conflict and post conflict

Abstract

Purpose Conflict environments are under researchers’ scope in many disciplines at micro and macro levels. This study steers towards finding out how literature addresses entrepreneurship in conflict contexts. In addition, this paper tries to ascertain the theoretical bases and main themes and issues that have been studied in this area, to map the current knowledge in a clear frame as an attempt to highlight gaps and weaknesses in relevant literature Design/methodology/approach Review entrepreneurship, conflict and post-conflict literature including the terminologies, theories, methodologies and main themes. The primary sources of data are research articles that were published in scholarly journals and written in English. The paper includes, in the final list of reviewed articles, 57 articles. Findings The review reveals three main themes of the special definition of entrepreneurship in conflict areas. Despite the growing interest, many gaps remain. More involvement in collecting data directly from the area under conflict is required instead of the heavy dependency on secondary data. In addition, destructive business and conflict consequences have promising research issues to be discovered more in single places or collectively for broader comprehensiveness. These findings may assist researchers, policymakers, and international bodies to approach the current literature and build farther on it. Originality/value This paper attempts to provide a mapping of literature that focuses on how entrepreneurship in conflict and post-conflict could differ or be similar to stable contexts. Our findings advance motivation for future empirical studies to encompass issues and development of entrepreneurship orientation, taxonomies, and impacts in conflict and post-conflict contexts.