Navigating Institutional Voids in Latin American Entrepreneurship Education

Entrepreneurship education in Latin America has expanded rapidly yet remains shaped by institutional voids that constrain entrepreneurial action. This paper explores how entrepreneurs in Guatemala learn and adapt amid weak institutions, limited financing, and fragmented ecosystems. Drawing on 19 qualitative interviews with founders, investors, and ecosystem actors, we identify how entrepreneurs compensate for financial gaps, substitute for absent infrastructure, and leverage networks as informal learning platforms. These practices, built on learning mechanisms of multi-perspective reflection, sensemaking, and deliberate trial and error, constitute a form of self-education in navigating institutional complexity. We argue that entrepreneurship education in Latin America must move beyond imported Western models to embrace void navigation and hybrid financial literacy. Extending ecosystem-embedded education to include ecosystem-spanning pedagogy enhances entrepreneurs’ ability to recognize and adapt to institutional voids. Our findings also reveal how resilience and social and sustainability missions emerge organically as entrepreneurs design around institutional failure, suggesting that Latin America provides fertile ground for rethinking the future of entrepreneurship education globally.