Shades of Grey: How do Informal Firms Navigate Between Macro and Meso Institutional Environments?
通过定性分析，揭示了新兴经济体的企业家如何在宏观制度规则与中观行业规范之间权衡，做出非正规经营决策，并发现非正规性是一个多维连续体，成功的企业家更关注双重约束，且非正规与正规企业共同构建了维持非正规性的交换体系。
Our qualitative research shows that when making decisions about informality, entrepreneurs in emerging economies purposefully navigate between the enabling and constraining rules of the macro institutional environment and the norms of the meso institutional environment. We show that: (1) informality is a multidimensional continuum along which path to formalization unfolds; (2) as entrepreneurs grow more successful they become simultaneously more attuned to the countervailing constraints of both the macro and meso institutional environments; and (3) informal firms and formal firms weave together an exchange system that legitimizes the persistence of informality. In the context of informality, meso institutions serve as the connective tissue which cross‐link levels of the environment and shape the context in which entrepreneurs make decisions. Copyright © 2014 Strategic Management Society.