Breaking the Shackles of Poverty: How Bridging Ties Enable Subsistence Entrepreneurs to Upgrade their Businesses to a Prosperous Level

Authors

Asifa Ilyas, Virtual University of PakistanFollow
Ralf Wagner, University of KasselFollow

Document Type

Research Article - Refereed

Abstract

Subsistence entrepreneurs establish and run their business ventures under harsh economic and social conditions. These survival-driven businesses are impoverished and generate insufficient income for entrepreneurs and their families. Subsistence entrepreneurs can break this vicious poverty cycle by upscaling their ventures into more sustainable and profitable businesses. However, it is not clear what prevents these entrepreneurs from developing more prosperous and sustainable business ventures.

This study fills the gap by investigating the effect of bridging social ties on subsistence businesses' performance. Further, the study examines the impact of group identity, jealousy, gender, and power on subsistence entrepreneurs' efforts to build bridging social ties.

Empirical results are obtained using a quantitative methodology for analyzing a sample of 151 entrepreneurs living in an impoverished neighborhood of Lahore, Pakistan. The findings show that bridging ties improve subsistence business ventures' performance. The data evaluation demonstrates further that gender affects the building of social bridging ties. The results also highlight that group identity restricts bridging social ties but finds no negative impact of jealousy and power on bridging social ties.

Recommended Citation

Ilyas, Asifa and Wagner, Ralf (2023) "Breaking the Shackles of Poverty: How Bridging Ties Enable Subsistence Entrepreneurs to Upgrade their Businesses to a Prosperous Level," Subsistence Marketplaces: Vol. 1: No. 1, Article 6.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/subsistencemarketplaces/vol1/iss1/6