ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. This book advances an understanding of entrepreneurship in the informal sector based on institutional theory. It defines informal entrepreneurship as involving somebody actively engaged in starting a business or is the owner/manager of a business that is less than 36 months old who participates in socially legitimate paid activity that is legal is all respects other than that it is not declared to, hidden from or unregistered with the authorities for tax, social security and/or labour law purposes when it should be declared. Throughout the twentieth century, the dominant belief was that entrepreneurship in the informal sector was a minor form of activity which persisted only in a few 'backward' enclaves in the global economy and that it was gradually disappearing with the natural and inevitable occurrence of modernisation and economic development.
