From the Margins to the Core: Reimagining Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Fragile Regions Through Informality, Finance, and Institutional Innovation

Entrepreneurial ecosystem research has mainly been conducted in institutionally stable areas where formal finance, policy support, and market institutions are either well developed or underdeveloped. Much less is known about how entrepreneurial ecosystems arise and operate in fragile settings characterized by institutional weakness, financial exclusion, and rampant informality. This study examines how entrepreneurial ecosystems are created and maintained in a resilient manner in the face of such situations. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork conducted between 2019 and 2024 in Cameroon, Gabon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the study comprises 87 semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs and ecosystem actors, supplemented by participant observation and informal interactions. Using an inductive qualitative approach, the findings identify three interrelated mechanisms that sustain entrepreneurial activity in fragile contexts: informal resource mobilization, relational governance through social networks, and institutional innovation through hybrid organizational practices. Informal financial arrangements such as tontines, kin-based lending, and community funds offer flexible liquidity and allow incremental experimentation. Social networks are informal governance systems that organize collective action, arbitrate disputes, and mediate interactions with formal institutions. Entrepreneurs also create hybrid organizational forms that combine formal registration with informal operational practices, enabling them to retain legitimacy while maintaining flexibility. Building on these insights, the paper proposes the notion of a "resilient informal ecosystem", whereby ecosystem-level resilience arises from distributed financial arrangements, socially embedded governance, and adaptive institutional recombination. The research adds to the literature on entrepreneurial ecosystems by extending to fragile institutional environments and showing how informality and hybrid institutional arrangements are foundational ecosystem infrastructures rather than transitional and peripheral phenomena. The findings also have policy implications, suggesting that development interventions should strengthen existing informal coordination and financial mechanisms rather than replace them with standardized formal models.