TY - JOUR
T1 - Entrepreneurial Activity in the Context of Violent Conflict
T2 - Business and Organized Violence in Colombia1
AU - Rettberg, Angelika
AU - Leiteritz, Ralf J.
AU - Nasi, Carlo
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper draws on a collective research project on the political economy of the Colombian violent conflict funded by the International Development Research Centre of Canada. In the context of the project, we have gathered qualitative and quantitative data about entrepreneurial activity in several Colombian regions that produce commodities such as oil, coffee, bananas, emeralds, and flowers (none are manufactured goods). Our findings suggest that, in some of these regions, features of entrepreneurial activity such as those listed above at least partially explain both the intensity and the specific forms adopted by illegal armed actors’ presence and strategies. Forced displacement of civil population, for example, appears to be a strategy of territorial expansion where entrepreneurial activity requires large extensions of land, such as in the case of the banana and palm oil sectors (Goebertus, 2008).
Funding Information:
1 Research for this paper has been funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Can-ada and by the Political Science Department at Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). For research assistance, we are grateful to Pilar Lozano, Juan Diego Prieto, Manuel Riaño, and Camilo Vargas. A prelimi-nary version of this paper was presented at the United Nations University’s World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) Project Workshop on Entrepreneurship and Conflict at INCORE, Uni-versity of Ulster, Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 20–21 March 2009, and published as UNU Wider Working Paper No. 2010/06, February 2010. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2011, Copyright CCSBE/CCPME.
PY - 2011/1/1
Y1 - 2011/1/1
N2 - The Colombian private sector has been accused of promoting or profiting from violence in the country. However, the private sector's role in the violent conflict and the impact of conflict on economic and entrepreneurial activity vary, as reflected by differences in political activism in peacebuilding strategies and in costs endured according to company size, sector, and region of operations. At the same time, accounts of regional variation in conflict intensity suggest that an understanding of the Colombian context of violent conflict requires a subnational approach. This paper explores whether and how differences in regional violent conflict can be attributed to the make-up of economic organizations and entrepreneurial activity associated with the production of five natural resources (oil, coffee, bananas, emeralds, and flowers) in several Colombian regions. It is found that company-specific traits, institutions of production, and the nature of international markets have a significant impact on the link between entrepreneurial activity and regional and local dynamics of the violent conflict in Colombia.
AB - The Colombian private sector has been accused of promoting or profiting from violence in the country. However, the private sector's role in the violent conflict and the impact of conflict on economic and entrepreneurial activity vary, as reflected by differences in political activism in peacebuilding strategies and in costs endured according to company size, sector, and region of operations. At the same time, accounts of regional variation in conflict intensity suggest that an understanding of the Colombian context of violent conflict requires a subnational approach. This paper explores whether and how differences in regional violent conflict can be attributed to the make-up of economic organizations and entrepreneurial activity associated with the production of five natural resources (oil, coffee, bananas, emeralds, and flowers) in several Colombian regions. It is found that company-specific traits, institutions of production, and the nature of international markets have a significant impact on the link between entrepreneurial activity and regional and local dynamics of the violent conflict in Colombia.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84940335544&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84940335544&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/08276331.2011.10593533
DO - 10.1080/08276331.2011.10593533
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84940335544
SN - 0827-6331
VL - 24
SP - 179
EP - 196
JO - Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship
JF - Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship
IS - 2
ER -
