Heterodox entrepreneurial ecosystems: Informal cross border trade and its paradoxical tensions

This conceptual paper aims to merge the previously separate research streams of entrepreneurial ecosystems and informal entrepreneurship. Informal cross border trade is selected as a prototype of informal entrepreneurship. The paper makes three contributions. First, drawing from orthodox entrepreneurial ecosystems, it dissects participants , places , policies , processes , products , proponents , and push-pull considerations underpinning informal cross border trade. Second, it underscores the cultural -, ideological -, otherness -, and role and norm heterodoxies evident in informal cross border trade. Third, the paper describes four paradoxes - bribery , empowerment , regulation , and visibility - which maintain the heterodox entrepreneurial ecosystem in balance. With this, the conceptual paper opens a new line of enquiry on heterodox entrepreneurial ecosystems, defined as juxtapositions of actors, factors, ideologies, and places facilitating productive entrepreneurship through balancing paradoxical tensions . • The ecosystem perspective is applied to informal entrepreneurship. • Informal cross border trade is chosen as an exemplar of informal entrepreneurship. • Key actors and factors are identified. • Heterodoxy typifies the ecosystem for informal cross border trade. • Paradoxical tensions keep the ecosystem intact.