Beyond Necessity-Driven versus Opportunity-Driven Entrepreneurship : A Study of Informal Entrepreneurs in England, Russia and Ukraine

To evaluate critically the conventional view that entrepreneurs are either necessity- or opportunity-driven, empirical data is reported from England, Ukraine and Russia on the motives of a specific group of entrepreneurs, namely those operating wholly or partially in the informal economy. Finding that for the vast majority both necessity- and opportunity-drivers are involved in their decision to start-up enterprises along with a clear shift from necessity- to opportunity-oriented motivations as their ventures became more established, the paper concludes by discussing the public policy implications of these findings