Strategic shift of developing economies to production and industrialization: The role of informal institutions

Developing economies (DEs) in the Global South account for a significant amount of consumption than production. A continuation of this trend portrays persistent under-development of the nations in these economies, and it also highlights a challenging task for actualizing the United Nation’s year 2030 goal of a sustainable developed world. The Management and Organization Studies literature abound with explanations about the roles of formal institutions for developing the production capacities and industrialization of economies. Yet, these studies are dominated in US-led Global North. Meanwhile, explanations about how informal institutions in general, and, in particular, formal institutions proposed by Global South developing economies, function to enable and advance production and (re)industrialization has received limited attention. This paper doubles as a research note and a call for papers for a special issue to contribute to the emerging discourse on the strategic shift of developing economies to production through a deeper understanding of the role of informal institutions in economic development.