IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/jdexxx/v23y2018i04ns1084946718500255.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluating The Impact Of Informal Sector Competition On Firm Performance: Some Lessons From South-East Europe

Author

Listed:
  • COLIN C. WILLIAMS

    (Sheffield University Management School, University of Sheffield, Conduit Road, Sheffield, S10 1FL, UK)

  • SLAVKO BEZEREDI

    (Institute of Public Finance, Zagreb, Croatia)

Abstract

A widespread assumption is that competition from the informal sector has a negative impact on the firm performance of legitimate enterprises. This is because of the unfair competition they face from such enterprises in the informal sector. The aim of this paper is to provide an evidence-based evaluation of whether this is the case based on an analysis of the relationship between the firm performance of enterprises and their perception of the prevalence of informal sector competition. To do so, data is reported from a representative sample of 1,430 enterprises in Bulgaria, Croatia and FYR Macedonia. The finding is that enterprises asserting that their competitors participate in the informal economy have significantly lower real annual sales growth rates compared with those who assert that their competitors do not participate in the informal economy. The theoretical and policy implications are then discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Colin C. Williams & Slavko Bezeredi, 2018. "Evaluating The Impact Of Informal Sector Competition On Firm Performance: Some Lessons From South-East Europe," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(04), pages 1-14, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:jdexxx:v:23:y:2018:i:04:n:s1084946718500255
    DOI: 10.1142/S1084946718500255
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S1084946718500255
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S1084946718500255?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Colin C. Williams & Alvaro Martinez–Perez & Abbi M. Kedir, 2017. "Informal Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies: The Impacts of Starting up Unregistered on firm Performance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(5), pages 773-799, September.
    2. Rafael La Porta & Andrei Shleifer, 2014. "Informality and Development," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(3), pages 109-126, Summer.
    3. Colin C. Williams, 2014. "Confronting the Shadow Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15370.
    4. McKenzie, David J & Woodruff, Christopher, 2006. "Do Entry Costs Provide an Empirical Basis for Poverty Traps? Evidence from Mexican Microenterprises," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(1), pages 3-42, October.
    5. Rafael La Porta & Andrei Shleifer, 2008. "The Unofficial Economy and Economic Development," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 39(2 (Fall)), pages 275-363.
    6. Olumide TAIWO, 2013. "Employment choice and mobility in multi-sector labour markets: Theoretical model and evidence from Ghana," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 152(3-4), pages 469-492, December.
    7. Webb, Justin W. & Bruton, Garry D. & Tihanyi, Laszlo & Ireland, R. Duane, 2013. "Research on entrepreneurship in the informal economy: Framing a research agenda," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 598-614.
    8. Maloney, William F., 2004. "Informality Revisited," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1159-1178, July.
    9. Vijverberg, Wim P. M., 1995. "Returns to schooling in non-farm self-employment: An econometric case study of Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 1215-1227, July.
    10. Lewis, William W., 2004. "The Power of Productivity," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226476766.
    11. Erkko Autio & Kun Fu, 2015. "Economic and political institutions and entry into formal and informal entrepreneurship," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 67-94, March.
    12. Colin C Williams & Abbi M. Kedir, 2016. "Business Registration And Firm Performance: Some Lessons From India," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(03), pages 1-19, September.
    13. Pablo Fajnzylber & William F. Maloney & Gabriel V. Montes-Rojas, 2009. "Releasing Constraints to Growth or Pushing on a String? Policies and Performance of Mexican Micro-Firms," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(7), pages 1027-1047, August.
    14. Colin C. Williams, 2006. "The Hidden Enterprise Culture," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3948.
    15. Guillermo E. Perry & William F. Maloney & Omar S. Arias & Pablo Fajnzylber & Andrew D. Mason & Jaime Saavedra-Chanduvi, 2007. "Informality : Exit and Exclusion," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6730.
    16. Colin C. Williams & Besnik Krasniqi, 2018. "Explaining Informal Sector Entrepreneurship In Kosovo: An Institutionalist Perspective," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(02), pages 1-20, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Colin C. Williams, 2023. "A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 18668.
    2. Mohammad Amin, 2023. "Does competition from informal firms hurt job creation by formal manufacturing SMEs in developing and emerging countries? Evidence using firm-level survey data," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 1659-1681, April.
    3. Sana Ullah & Colin C. Williams & Babur Wasim Arif, 2019. "The Impacts Of Informality On Enterprise Innovation, Survival And Performance: Some Evidence From Pakistan," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(03), pages 1-19, September.
    4. Pedro Bermúdez & Luis Verástegui & José Luis Nolazco & Dante A. Urbina, 2024. "Effects of Corruption and Informality on Economic Growth through Productivity," Economies, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-23, October.
    5. Aysa Ipek Erdogan, 2023. "Drivers of SME Growth: Quantile Regression Evidence From Developing Countries," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, March.
    6. Zaineb Hlioui & Mohamed Gabsi & Abdelwahed Omri, 2022. "Informal Competition Effect on SMEs’ Innovation: Do Credit Constraints Matter? Evidence from Eastern European Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-23, October.
    7. Ioana Alexandra Horodnic & Colin C. Williams & Adriana Manolică & Cristina Teodora Roman & Gabriela Boldureanu, 2023. "Employer perspectives on undeclared work in the service sector: impacts and policy responses," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(5-6), pages 358-377, April.
    8. Ali, Abdilahi & Ali, Syed Imran, 2020. "Antecedents of the propensity to learn management practices and their impacts on firm outcomes in emerging markets: A Bayesian Model Averaging approach," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4).
    9. Eijaz Ahmed Khan & Lynne Harris & Mohammed Quaddus, 2021. "The mediating role of personality traits on the entrepreneurial orientation–firm performance relationship: informal entrepreneurship context," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 11(1), pages 41-52, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sana Ullah & Colin C. Williams & Babur Wasim Arif, 2019. "The Impacts Of Informality On Enterprise Innovation, Survival And Performance: Some Evidence From Pakistan," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(03), pages 1-19, September.
    2. Colin C. Williams & Abbi M. Kedir, 2017. "Starting-up unregistered and firm performance in Turkey," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 797-817, September.
    3. Colin C Williams & Abbi M. Kedir, 2016. "Business Registration And Firm Performance: Some Lessons From India," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(03), pages 1-19, September.
    4. Colin C. Williams & Abbi M. Kedir, 2019. "Explaining cross-country variations in the prevalence of informal sector competitors: lessons from the World Bank Enterprise Survey," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 677-696, September.
    5. Colin C. Williams & Abbi M. Kedir, 2017. "Evaluating The Impacts Of Starting Up Unregistered On Firm Performance In Africa," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(03), pages 1-20, September.
    6. Colin C. Williams & Brunilda Kosta, 2019. "Evaluating Institutional Theories Of Informal Sector Entrepreneurship: Some Lessons From Albania," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(02), pages 1-17, June.
    7. Colin C. Williams & Abbi Kedir, 2018. "Explaining Cross-National Variations In The Prevalence Of Informal Sector Entrepreneurship: Lessons From A Survey Of 142 Countries," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(01), pages 1-22, March.
    8. Colin C. Williams & Alvaro Martinez–Perez & Abbi M. Kedir, 2017. "Informal Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies: The Impacts of Starting up Unregistered on firm Performance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(5), pages 773-799, September.
    9. Colin C. Williams & Kwame Adom & Ioana Alexandra Horodnic, 2020. "Determinants Of The Level Of Informalization Of Enterprises: Some Evidence From Accra, Ghana," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 25(01), pages 1-24, March.
    10. Colin C. Williams, 2023. "A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 18668.
    11. Colin C. Williams & Friedrich Schneider, 2016. "Measuring the Global Shadow Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16551.
    12. Colin Williams & Brunilda Kosta, 2021. "Why do Consumers Buy from Informal Sector Suppliers in East-Central Europe? A Case Study of Home Repair and Renovation Services," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 1, pages 134-152, March.
    13. Colin C. Williams & Besnik Krasniqi, 2018. "Explaining Informal Sector Entrepreneurship In Kosovo: An Institutionalist Perspective," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(02), pages 1-20, June.
    14. Matteo Bobba & Luca Flabbi & Santiago Levy, 2022. "Labor Market Search, Informality, And Schooling Investments," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 63(1), pages 211-259, February.
    15. Amankwah-Amoah, Joseph & Hinson, Robert E. & Honyenuga, Ben & Lu, Yingfa, 2019. "Accounting for the transitions after entrepreneurial business failure: An emerging market perspective," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 148-158.
    16. Ioana Alexandra Horodnic & Colin C. Williams & Adriana Manolică & Cristina Teodora Roman & Gabriela Boldureanu, 2023. "Employer perspectives on undeclared work in the service sector: impacts and policy responses," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(5-6), pages 358-377, April.
    17. Colin C. Williams & Youssef Youssef, 2015. "Theorising Entrepreneurship in the Informal Sector in Urban Brazil: A Product of Exit or Exclusion?," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 24(2), pages 148-168, September.
    18. Nesma Mohamed Ali, 2017. "Towards a better integration of the informal sector: three empirical essays on the interaction between formal and informal firms in Egypt and beyond," Erudite Ph.D Dissertations, Erudite, number ph17-05 edited by Manon Domingues Dos Santos & Boris Najman.
    19. Eunice Maria M. N. Dos Santos & João J. Ferreira, 2017. "Analyzing Informal Entrepreneurship: A Bibliometric Survey," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(04), pages 1-20, December.
    20. Islam, Asif M. & Amin, Mohammad, 2023. "The gender labor productivity gap across informal firms," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wsi:jdexxx:v:23:y:2018:i:04:n:s1084946718500255. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/jde/jde.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.